Nightwind School of Magic
by Lady Sabine of Macayhill
Summary: Instead of attending Hogwarts, Lily, Severus, Remus, James, and Sirius attend a different school called Nightwind School, a very liberal school that takes those with great magical talent or potential from around the world. This ends up changing their lives and futures greatly. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This plot bunny came into my head and refused to go away, so I have decided to start a fic on it. I know that there are other fics with Harry Potter going to a magical school other than Hogwarts, but I don't think there are many, if at all, having Harry's parents and their friends attend an alternate school, so I decided to start it there. I hope you like my idea for Nightwind School of Magic.

Disclaimer for entire fic: I do not own the world of Harry Potter. It is J.K. Rowling's brainchild and I am merely playing in it.

Lily Evans and Severus Snape stopped in the middle of their conversation in the Evanses' yard and looked up as a woman walked up to them. She was in her late twenties, looked Indian, and wore a short-sleeved pink shirt with a pale blue sari. "Good morning," she said in slightly accented English. "I take it that you are Miss Lily Evans?" At Lily's nod, the lady smiled and then looked at Severus. "And you are-?"

"Severus Snape," he replied, wondering who the woman was and what she wanted.

"Good, then I can explain things to the both of you at the same time. I am Professor Malati Singh from the Nightwind School of Magic. Since the two of you are friends, I assume that Mr. Snape has already told you about the wizarding world and that you are a witch, Miss Evans?"

"Yes, he has," answered Lily, she and Severus standing up from their spot under a tree and brushing off their clothes.

"Why are you here, Professor Singh?" asked Severus. "From what I heard about Nightwind School, it's really exclusive and only takes those witches and wizards around the world with great potential or skill or are the children of former students or staff members."

"Well, not quite," said Professor Singh. "If you show signs of being evil with little or no chance of being redeemed, your invitation to the school is rescinded. We do not make a habit of teaching students just so they can become the next Dark Lord or Lady, like the one that has recently gained power in Britain. Anyway, I am here to inform the two of you that you are eligible to attend Nightwind School, tell you some things about our school, and if you wish to attend, speak with your parents or guardians about arranging for that to happen."

Lily and Severus exchanged looks and the former said, "I think we might want to accept the invitation to attend Nightwind School. What is it like, Professor Singh?"

"It is a very good and liberal school, Miss Evans. First and foremost it teaches acceptance and equality of everyone, including beings such as goblins and werewolves. Prejudice is not tolerated and those students that may have been raised to look down on others learn otherwise by the end of their first year. The classes offered are the same ones as at Hogwarts, with a couple extra ones. In first year, all students raised in the Muggle world have to take a Wizarding Culture class, while those raised in the Wizarding world have to take a Muggle Culture class. Those that are knowledgeable about both worlds, like you Mr. Snape, will have a study period instead. Also, everyone is required to learn one foreign language. Here is a list of all the classes you will be required to take, plus the electives you can take starting third year."

Professor Singh handed Severus and Lily each a list and they looked them over. "Is Magizoology the study of magical creatures, Professor Singh?" asked Severus.

"You are correct, Mr. Snape," she answered. "I believe at Hogwarts the class is known as 'Care of Magical Creatures." She opened her handbag again and withdrew two envelopes, which she handed to them. "Here are your acceptance letters and list of school supplies. If you wish to attend, we will make arrangements for you to go to Nightwind School a week before term starts. You will attend Orientation, get settled into the school, and buy your supplies at the nearby village."

The two friends exchanged looks again and nodded. "We would like to attend Nightwind School, Professor Singh," said Lily and Severus at the same time.

"Very good," said Professor Singh with a smile. "Now, let's go speak with your respective parents about your decision."

* * *

Remus Lupin was curled up on his bed, reading a book, when there was a knock on the door. "Come in," he called, looking up from the book.

The door opened and his mother said, "Remus, could you please come downstairs? There's someone here to see you."

Wondering what it was about, he marked his place in his book, set it down on the dresser, and followed his mother downstairs to the living room. A man in his mid-thirties, with graying dark hair and dark eyes, and looked Italian, was sitting there with Remus's father. When Remus came in, the man got up and said with a smile, "Hello, I'm Professor Antonio Romano, fourth-year History of Magic teacher at Nightwind School of Magic. I'm here to extend you an invitation to the school, Remus."

Remus was startled by this, for he had never expected to be able to attend a magical school after being bitten by Fenir Greyback and thereby becoming a werewolf. Especially Nightwind School, which had a reputation of only taking students around the world with great magical ability or potential.

"I would like to attend Nightwind School, Professor Romano, but are you sure about the invitation? I'm a-"

"Werewolf?" interrupted Professor Romano. "I'm one myself. Nightwind School doesn't care, other than to make sure proper precautions are in place so that nobody gets bitten whenever there's a full moon. The Potions teachers at the school are working on developing a cure for lycanthropy during their free time. So far that hasn't been done, but they have been able to develop a potion that makes the transformation less painful and another that makes you less prone to violence."

Remus looked interested at the news. "That's great! So Nightwind School doesn't mind at all that I'm a werewolf? I definitely want to attend, Professor Romano."

Professor Romano smiled. "Here is your acceptance letter and list of school supplies, Remus. You will be provided with a Portkey to Nightwind School a week before the school term begins. That will give you time to attend Orientation, meet the other students, get settled in, and purchase your supplies at the nearby village. Oh, and here is a pamphlet giving you a general overview and a brief history of the school. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin, I will be in touch with you later with any further questions you or Remus might have. If you will excuse me, I shall take my leave, as I have to see other young wizards and witches about attending Nightwind School. It was a pleasure meeting you all and I shall see you at Orientation, Remus. Good day, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin."

* * *

Sirius Black frowned when Kreacher appeared in his room and informed him that he was wanted in the drawing room downstairs. The only times he ever got summoned to the drawing room was if family or other guests he found annoying or boring was visiting. As his parents had not mentioned that anyone was coming over to visit during breakfast, he supposed that whomever was visiting hadn't sent a notification beforehand.

Sirius entered the drawing room to find a man in his early thirties, with sandy hair, blue eyes, and dressed in dark green robes sitting there with his parents. "Good morning, Sirius Black," said the man with a slight Welsh accent. "I am Professor Gareth Llewellyn, one of the two Arithmancy teachers at Nightwind School of Magic. I am here to notify you that you have been accepted to the school, like your cousin Miss Andromeda Black, and-"

"She is no family of ours!" snapped Mrs. Black, for Andromeda had been disowned two years previous for eloping with a Muggleborn named Ted Tonks. "And Sirius will not be attending Nightwind School, regardless of your reputation of taking only those with great magical talent. _She_ went and was influenced to not being a proper member of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. I will not have Sirius be the same! It's bad enough that he's already showing signs of rebellion."

"That is not for you decide, Mrs. Black," said Professor Llewellyn coldly. "Sirius is the one that has received the invitation, not you, and so he will be the one to decide whether or not to accept and attend Nightwind School. You will not try to coerce him into refusing. It must be done of his own free will. Sirius, do you want to attend?"

"Yes I do," responded Sirius firmly, looking defiantly at his parents. Attending Nightwind School would get him away from them, as unlike Hogwarts, they would not be able to simply show up the school if they felt the need to discipline him for something, and it would be another way to rebel against his family. Furthermore, his two favorite family members had attended, though Uncle Alphard hadn't done anything of yet that would cause him to be disowned. He also knew that Nightwind School would help him develop the talents he had, for he wouldn't have received an invitation otherwise, since it only took those with great skill or potential.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK!" thundered Mr. Black, getting to his feet. "You know our opinion on this! How dare you decide that you want to attend!"

"Go stuff yourselves," retorted Sirius, also getting to his feet. "I hate you guys, with your stupid thing of looking down on those that aren't purebloods. Nightwind School doesn't teach stuff like that and it will help me be a much better person than the rest of the family. Uncle Alphard and Andromeda are the only ones I like, and they attended. Nothing you say is going to change my mind. I am going to Nightwind School and you can't stop me."

Mrs. Black stood up, a look of fury and great dislike on her face. "If you insist on attending Nightwind School, then you will be blasted off the family tree."

"Go ahead then," said Sirius, crossing his arms. "I'm going to Nightwind School, not Hogwarts."

"You are no son of mine," hissed Mrs. Black. "Get out of this house at once! You as well, Professor Llewellyn!" She then stormed out the drawing room, her husband following her.

Professor Llewellyn sighed and looked down at Sirius. "I'm sorry that this had to happen, Sirius. I suppose you'll have to be one of our scholarship students now, since your parents have cut you off. Unless you wish to see if your uncle will help you? Alphard was a few years above me and he tutored me in some of my classes. I was considered brilliant in Arithmancy, but only an average wizard when it came to spellwork, so he was a great help."

"Professor Llewellyn, I'll see Uncle Alphard," said Sirius, looking not at all upset over being disowned.

"All right then," said Professor Llewellyn. "I'll Side-Along Apparate you to his place. Since you've been disowned, you'll be showing up at the school much earlier than the others. You will have to live at the school or at the home of one of the families in the nearby village, unless your uncle decides to take you in."

Sirius nodded and then Professor Llewellyn took his hand and proceeded to Side-Along Apparate him to the home of Alphard Black.

* * *

James Potter looked down to see his father standing in the back yard, waving at him to come down. He quickly steered his broom downward and landed on the ground a few seconds later. "What is it, Dad?" James asked.

"Your letter just arrived," Mr. Potter said. "The one from Nightwind School, since you know it's too soon for the one from Hogwarts."

James grinned and snatched the envelope from his father's hand. Ever since Edmund Potter had received an invitation to attend Nightwind School over two hundred years ago, the Potter family, with the exception of two Squibs in the line, had gone there rather than Hogwarts, including the ones that had married into the family. James had been awaiting the day when he was old enough to get the invitation and go off to Nightwind School, where he would develop his talents, broaden his mind, and eventually find his future love among one of the female students there, as his father, grandfather, and so on had done before him.

He eagerly opened the envelope and took out the acceptance letter. It read:

"_Dear Mr. James Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to attend Nightwind School of Magic. Enclosed is your list of supplies for the upcoming school year. _

_The first term will start on September first. You will be taken to Nightwind School at the start of the last week of August so you may attend Orientation, purchase your supplies, and get settled into the school. We shall see you then._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Headmistress Hikari Nakamura and Deputy Headmaster Oluchi Ihejirika_"

James then took out the second sheet of parchment, which had the list of supplies and the classes that he was to take. He scanned the list and then looked up at his father. "I can't wait, Dad!"

Mr. Potter smiled down at his son. "I know you'll enjoy your time at Nightwind like your mum and I did. Let's go inside and talk to your mum." James picked up his broom and then followed his father inside the house.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: A reviewer pointed out some things to me that made quite a bit of sense. So I would like to tell my reviewers that James Potter and Sirius Black are not going to be the bullies that they were in the books. Since the Potter family has attended Nightwind School for the past two centuries, James knows better than to bully others. As for Sirius, since he will be in a environment where bullying is not allowed and nobody will turn a blind eye to his actions, he will also be better behaved. They will still have a bit of a mischievous streak like the Weasley twins, but any pranks they will play will be humorous and not malicious.

Severus gazed around at his new room. When Professor Singh had gone to see his parents about his attending Nightwind School, she had immediately realized that something was not right at his home. The fit of anger that Tobias Snape had displayed over the fact that, despite his efforts, his son was still a wizard, hadn't helped matters at all. Professor Singh had to Stun him before he could take out his anger physically and then swiftly acted to take Severus and his mother out of there.

Nightwind School did not tolerate abuse of any sort, and any staff member that found evidence of it removed the person in question from the situation, the one exception to their policy of not interfering in family matters. Professor Singh had proceeded to magically pack up Severus's and Eileen Snape's belongings, shrunk the trunks for easier portage, and then Portkeyed them to Nightwind School. As for Tobias, he had been revived and informed that his wife was leaving him. At Eileen's insistence, no charges would be brought against him or any form of monetary support required from him in exchange for not contesting the divorce.

Once in the Entrance Hall of Nightwind School, Headmistress Nakmura had come down and spoke with Eileen and Severus, getting the full story, and then made arrangements for them to move into a furnished flat in the nearby town of Windmere. As tomorrow was Sunday, Eileen did not have to go to work, and so a tour of the town was planned. From what he had seen on the way to the flat, Severus suspected that the town was bigger than Hogsmeade.

He proceeded to unpack his clothes and put them away in the small closet and bureau in his room. After that, a house-elf named Trudy, who worked at Nightwind School, appeared. She explained that Headmistress Nakamura had lent her for the day so she could help get the flat in order. Trudy also had a bag containing enough food for the day and a pouch containing fifty Galleons so that Eileen could buy groceries and anything else that was needed. "Headmistress Nakamura says that the money is a loan, Miss Eileen, since you do not have any money with you at the moment," said Trudy with a curtsey. "You can give her five Galleons a week until it is paid off."

"Thank you, Trudy, and please pass on my thanks to Headmistress Nakamura," replied Eileen. She then proceeded to do some tidying up, while Trudy made a delicious lunch.

After lunch, Severus dusted his bedroom and then sat down to read _A History of Nightwind School of Magic_, which Professor Singh had borrowed from the school library for him. It was a very interesting read. The school had been founded in 1468 by an English wizard, Geoffrey Nightwind, and his wife, a French witch named Marie Lavelle Nightwind. They had wanted to create a place where equality and tolerance of all beings would be taught alongside magic and implement the rather liberal ideas that they and their friends, who were the first teachers at the school, had in mind.

The group, who were all wealthy, pooled their money and then found two uninhabited islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The larger of the two was used for the school and nearby town, while the other one became a wildlife preserve. Wards were set up on both so that they were Unplottable and hidden from Muggle eyes. In 1468, Nightwind School opened, with Geoffrey Nightwind as the first Headmaster and Transfiguration teacher and Marie Nightwind as Deputy Headmistress and Charms teacher. At first the students were all European, but as time progressed, students from other continents attended as well.

The classes had started out as being pretty much identical to the ones offered at Hogwarts, but others had been added on over time. Five years after the founding, a Wizarding Culture class had been set up for Muggleborn students, while those that grew up in the Wizarding world had to take Muggle Culture. Foreign language classes and a Customs of Magical Beings class came after that, and when students outside of Europe started attending, a World Culture class was set up also.

By the time Eileen called Severus to the kitchen for dinner, he had finished reading the book. As he ate, he told him mother all about it. She sighed when he was done and said, "Perhaps I should I have accepted the invitation to attend. But the Prince family had always attended Hogwarts, with the exception of a few members that chose Nightwind School instead, so I did the same. If I hadn't, then I might not have made the mistake of marrying Tobias."

Severus couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he kept quiet. Tobias Snape hadn't been so horrible when he'd first married Eileen. He'd actually been nice and loving. However, after he'd lost his job when Severus was five, he'd started drinking. That led to him and Eileen arguing constantly, during which arguments the two paid very little attention to their son. When they weren't arguing, Tobias was abusive to his son, though Eileen did her best to shield Severus. Unfortunately she had to work, or they'd have been out on the street, so she couldn't protect him all the time, though he could escape some of it by spending time with Lily. Eileen couldn't quite work up the nerve to take Severus and leave, as she still remembered when Tobias had been loving and hoped that he could change back to that time. Also, she had promised to never use any magic on her husband right after their wedding, which further made it difficult to protect her son.

When dinner was over, Severus helped his mother wash and dry the dishes and then he went back to his new room.

* * *

Alphard Black had been very upset to find out that his sister and brother-in-law had disowned Sirius over his decision to attend Nightwind School. He would have gone off immediately to give them a piece of his mind, if his nephew's welfare hadn't come first. The first thing he had done was hand Sirius a bag containing enough money to purchase his school supplies with plenty left over for pocket money. After that, Alphard had asked Professor Llewellyn to please take Sirius in for the time being, since Alphard wasn't in a position to, what with the rest of the Black family able to visit him at any time and cause difficulties for Sirius. Professor Llewellyn had instantly agreed and then Portkeyed Sirius over to the island where Nightwind School and the nearby town of Windmere was located.

Sirius was taken to the flat that Professor Llewellyn and his family lived in when school was not in session. A woman in her early thirties, with dark golden hair and green eyes, met them at the door. She looked startled to see Sirius, but smiled warmly and said, "Hello, I'm Rhiannon Llewellyn, Professor Llewellyn's wife and spiritual adviser to the Wiccan and Pagan students. You must be Sirius Black."

Sirius nodded and said, "Hello, Mrs. Llewellyn. I'm to live with your family for the moment, since my parents disowned me when I insisted on attending Nightwind."

Mrs. Llewellyn's eyes flashed when she heard that. "That's awful! I would have thought they'd be pleased that you were accepted to a school for gifted students."

"Not when it means that you'll be taught not to look down on others," answered Sirius. "My cousin Andromeda attended and she got disowned for eloping with a Muggleborn wizard that she met and fell in love with at Nightwind School. My ex-parents didn't want me turning out like her."

"I see. Since we don't have any spare bedrooms, would you mind sharing a room with my son? His name is Brandon and he's nine years old, Sirius."

"I don't mind, Mrs. Llewellyn," he said, figuring that Brandon wouldn't be anything like Sirius's brother Regulus, the favored son.

Professor Llewellyn summoned Brandon and his seven-year old sister Elanor, and introduced Sirius and explained to them that Sirius was going to live with them. Brandon was happy at the idea of having an older brother of sorts, and didn't mind sharing a room at all. The two boys then went off to the bedroom, where Mrs. Llewellyn used magic to convert Brandon's bed into a pair of bunk beds. The two then started clearing out some things so that Sirius would have space to put his belongings in, with Brandon happily telling him all about his family life as they worked.

Halfway through, they were called for lunch. As they ate, Elanor told Sirius all about Nightwind School, as she was a bookworm and had read _A History of Nightwind School of __Magic_, with some input from Brandon. After lunch, Sirius and Brandon finished clearing things out and the former put his clothes away in his half of the closet. Following that, Professor Llewellyn and his children took Sirius for a tour around Windmere.


	3. Chapter 3

On August 25th all the new students arrived. Thanks to a spell invented by a former Headmaster of Nightwind School, the island was not actually a part of any time zone. Instead, the time on the island would be identical to the time of wherever you came from. For example, if someone from eight o'clock in the morning in China Portkeyed to the school, you would arrive at the island's eight o'clock in the morning. This also worked in reverse, and so kept students from having to experience jet lag.

The students gathered in the Assembly Hall, where Severus quickly found Lily. The latter looked very excited. "Isn't this wonderful, Sev?" she asked as the two of them sat down. "I can't wait to attend classes and learn to master my magic. I'm really glad that you and your mum don't have to deal with your father any more."

"I'm glad too, Lily," replied Severus. He gestured at the boy next to him. "This is Sirius Black. Sirius, this is my best friend Lily Evans. Sirius moved to Windmere about the same time I did, as his parents had disowned him when he insisted on attending Nightwind School. We've hung out together a few times."

"Hi, Lily," said Sirius with a smile. "My ex-family is mostly Dark. The only decent ones were the ones that attended Nightwind School. My cousin Andromeda was the last one to attend, and since she got disowned for eloping with a Muggleborn wizard she met and fell in love with here, my parents didn't want me attending."

"That's awful!" Lily exclaimed. "How could they be like that? Well, I'm happy you didn't turn out like them."

Sirius shrugged and said, "I always was something of a rebel. And I did want to get away from them. Being disowned doesn't really bother me. And it could have been worse. My ex-parents may have yelled at me a lot whenever I did something they didn't like, but at least they didn't hit me like Severus says his ex-dad did to him."

Lily winced, but didn't reply as Headmistress Nakamura called for silence just then. All talk died down and then Headmistress Nakamura spoke. "Good morning, new students. I am Headmistress Hikari Nakamura and I also teach the class on Japanese culture. Welcome to Nightwind School of Magic. In case you are wondering, there is a translation spell on the school so that you will hear anything spoken to you in your native language until you are fluent in English."

A tall black man in his early forties stepped forward. "Hello, I am Deputy Headmaster Oluchi Ihejirika," he said with a slight accent that sounded African, though Severus had no idea as to exactly what country in Africa it was from. "I am also one of the teachers of the World Culture class, focusing on African culture." He then gestured at the group of teachers behind him. "We have many teachers, but these are the ones that you will deal with the most, as they teach the first-years."

The teachers stepped forward one by one and introduced themselves. A Scandinavian woman in her mid-fifties was first. "I am Professor Astrid Larsen, Astronomy teacher." Next was a woman in her late-forties with an Australian accent. "I am Professor Lauren Mills, Charms teacher." Third was a woman in her early thirties who looked Filipino. "I am Professor Vanessa Amper, Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher." After that was a Russian or Eastern European man in his mid-thirties. "I am Professor Ivan Boledenka, Herbology teacher." A Korean woman of about fifty introduced herself as Professor Myeong Park-Davis, History of Magic teacher. A Native American woman named Professor Piama Trueblood was the Muggle Culture teacher and one of the World Culture teachers, while a German man named Professor Christoph Hertz taught Wizarding Culture. Professor Karel van Herten, who was Dutch, taught Potions, and Professor Isabel Chavez, who was from South America, taught Transfiguration.

The rest of the staff that weren't teachers then introduced themselves. Mr. Matthew Davis, husband of Professor Park-Davis, and Mrs. Vasanti Kimball (wife of the fourth-year Astronomy teacher), were the librarians. Naveed Farhoud was the imam to the Muslim students, as well as one of the two school Healers, while Amita Patel was a priestess to the Hindu students and the other Healer. Pastor Whitney van Herten, wife of Professor van Herten, was a Protestant chaplain and a Mediwitch, and Father Carlos Vasquez was the Catholic chaplain/priest and a Mediwizard. Rabbi Elijah Goldberg was the rabbi to the Jewish students, and Rhiannon Llewellyn the advisor to the Wiccan and Pagan students. Finally, Danica and Josef Rybar, who were husband and wife, were the school groundskeepers.

After that, each student was given a map of the school and a tour was conducted. There were four inter-connecting buildings, formed in a rectangle with a large courtyard in the center. Two of the buildings were dormitories, one for the girls and the other for the boys. The main building held the Dining Hall, Assembly Hall, and classrooms, while the fourth building held the library, study rooms, and staff quarters. Behind the main building were the Greenhouses, Quidditch Pitch, and a gymnasium that also contained a swimming pool. Behind the girls' dorm were several trees and a pond and behind the boys' dorm were more trees and a stable. Behind the library was a path that would take you to Windmere, plus a stream and several hot springs that provided the entire island with its hot water.

After the tour, the students returned to the Assembly Hall, where they were asked to introduce themselves and state where they were from. Since there were about a hundred and twenty students, this took awhile. Severus noted that five of them were from Windmere, one (who was of mixed Asian and European descent) of whom was Claire Nightwind, who said that yes, she was the many times great-granddaughter of the Founders. Besides him, Lily, and Sirius, there were two others from Britain, James Potter (who had a family history of attending Nightwind) and Remus Lupin, and a girl named Fiona O'Reilly from Ireland. The rest were from various countries around the world, with over half of them that had parents that had attended Nightwind School or a family history of doing so.

Following that, everyone went to the Dining Hall for lunch. As the rest of the school was not here (they would arrive three days from now to buy their school supplies and get resettled), only the staff table and the first-year table were occupied. At one end of the table were various kosher and halal dishes for the Jewish and Muslim students. Next to that were vegetarian and non-beef dishes for those that were either Hindu or didn't eat meat, and the other end of the table had Asian dishes. The middle of the table was mostly European and American dishes, with a few South American and African ones.

Claire, whom Severus had met during his stay at Windmere for the past month-and-a-half, sat down next to Lily. "You must be Lily Evans. Severus told me about you. I'm Claire Nightwind, if you don't remember, and I expect that we'll be good friends. I told Severus the same thing when I met him."

Lily was surprised by Claire's forthright manner, but smiled and said, "I'd like that, Claire."

"Well, we are going to be roommates after all, and if we didn't become friends, it'd be awkward." She looked around and then gestured for two other girls, one in a pale blue headscarf and a darker blue outfit of billowy trousers and long shirt of sorts and the other, who looked African, in a black top and a floral skirt, to join them.

"_As-Salaam Alaikum_," Claire said to the girl in the headscarf.

The other girl looked very surprised as she replied, "_Wa-Alaikum Salaam_. I did not know that you knew the standard Muslim greeting. You said your name was Claire Nightwind?"

Claire nodded. "There are several Muslim families in Windmere and I learned about Muslim customs from them. You're Amina Karim, correct?" Amina nodded and Claire looked over at the African girl. "And you're Makena Okoro? This is Lily Evans. The four of us are going to be roommates. And that's Severus Snape, Lily's best friend."

Severus and Lily slid down on the bench to make room for Amina and Makena. The two girls sat down, the latter looking just a little wary as she glanced at Lily. "Hello, Makena," said Lily with a smile. "It's nice to meet you. Where did you say that you were from?"

"South Africa, Miss Lily," answered Makena.

"It's just Lily," said Lily, a little puzzled as to why the other girl felt the need to call her 'Miss'. Well, she did know that there were some Caucasians that looked down on black people, but she had never been one of them, and surely Africa was different from Britain.

"Didn't the teacher that gave your invitation tell you that prejudice isn't tolerated at all at Nightwind, Makena?" asked Claire, pausing from filling her plate with food.

"Professor Afolayan did, but I had difficulty believing it, Miss Nightwind."

"It's Claire. Besides, I doubt that the white people in South Africa would treat me equally either, since I'm half Chinese. Look, Makena, apartheid won't be anything you'll have to experience here. After a few days here you'll adjust and believe what Professor Afolayan explained to you. When she told me what non-white people had to go through in South Africa, I was shocked and horrified."

"What's apartheid?" asked Severus.

"It's a kind of racial segregation in South Africa," responded Makena. "White people are in charge and they're the only ones with full rights. Colored, or those that are considered to be mixed black and white, and Asians have some rights, while the natives, or full Africans, have practically no rights at all."

Severus winced at that, for the wizarding world in Britain had never been that extreme. Yes, there were those purebloods that thought themselves better than others and looked down on halfbloods, Muggleborns, and blood traitors, but the Ministry of Magic hadn't passed any laws treating them like second class citizens and were currently fighting against the Dark Lord and his followers.

"That's horrible," said Amina quietly. "But you won't have to worry about that kind of thing here. My parents both attended Nightwind. My mother is a Muggleborn witch and was glad to have a chance to get away from her family and go to a school. Her family didn't believe it was necessary for a girl to be educated. My father preferred to go to a school that was more open-minded rather than the school of magic in Saudi Arabia. The boy's school, I mean. There's another one for girls nearby it."

Claire gestured to two boys that were sitting across from Severus. "They're two of your roommates, Severus, so you might want to get to know them."

"Thanks, Claire." Severus got the attention of the two boys and said, "Hello, I'm Severus Snape. I'm going to be your roommate."

"Hello, Severus," said the Asian boy in slightly accented English. "I am Yun Huang. My parents own the bookstore in Windmere."

The other boy, who was black, said, "I'm Marshall Glenn, from the United States. My parents also attended Nightwind School, though they were both Muggleborn. My dad was friends with Yun's dad, so we've already met and hung out together before. I hope we can become friends."

"Me too," said Severus, sounding a bit tentative. He had always been something of a loner and didn't make friends very easily. Other than Lily and now Claire, he didn't have any friends, though he was on friendly terms with Sirius, since both of them didn't exactly have good childhoods.

"Claire, who's our fourth roommate?" asked Yun. "Since thanks to the fact that your parents are teachers here, you were able to see the room assignments."

"It's Remus Lupin. Hey, Remus!" A tired-looking boy with brown hair and eyes looked up from the end of the table. "Would you take your plate and sit over here, so you can get to know your roommates? I'm Claire Nightwind, by the way."

Remus looked startled, but nodded and got up. He took his plate, fork, and cup and sat down at the empty seat on Severus's other side. His roommates introduced themselves and then the four of them started up a conversation about their lives and likes and dislikes as they ate. Severus noticed that Sirius was talking to three other boys, one of them James Potter, further down the table and figured that Claire had fixed it so that Sirius could get to know his roommates as well.

After lunch, the room assignments were given out and everyone went to get settled in their respective rooms. Each bedroom had four beds, two on each side, with a dresser next to each. Against one wall was four small desks and on either side of them was a closet. On one side of the door were two bookcases and the other side had two bureaus with four drawers each. Each person was given a drawer in each bureau, one meant for their underthings and the other for any small items they wanted to store away. Their respective trunks were at the foot of each bed, and each bedroom had a connecting bathroom.

The afternoon was spent unpacking and the residents of each room getting to know each other better. After that was dinner and then everyone was each handed a small handbook that listed the school rules. At ten o'clock was lights out, though in reality it was just the time when everyone had to be in their rooms by and not when they had to go to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Happy Columbus Day to those in the United States. Though I'm not a fan of the holiday, even if I do like having the day off. First of all, the Native Americans certainly didn't like Columbus 'discovering' North America and as a result losing their homes and way of life, and second, the Vikings were the first Europeans to find North America.

The following day, the first years were split up into groups of sixteen, except for the eighth group, which had eight people, and taken to Windmere to buy their school supplies. James Potter, Sirius Black, and their roommates Dylan O'Hagan and Kurt Freidrich were in the same group as Severus, Remus, Marshall, Yun, Claire, Lily, Amina, Makena, and four other girls that introduced themselves as Nicole Coursant, Ekaterina Petran (Katya for short and good friends with Yun and Claire), Fiona O'Reilly, and Yukiko Kamiya. Professor Chavez was in charge of their group.

She led them down the road to Windmere. Their first stop was the local bank, which was situated against the rather small mountain that was at the edge of town. Professor Chavez politely greeted the goblin doorkeeper in Gobbledygook. Claire, Yun, Marshall, Fiona, James, and Katya, who knew enough for the standard goblin greeting, did the same. The others merely bowed and said, "I greet you. May good fortune and wealth be yours," in English, or their native languages translated into English due to the translation spell. The goblin smiled and returned the greetings and bows, and then the group went inside.

As most of them were from families that had attended Nightwind School before, they either had vaults that their parents set up for them or family vaults that they had access to. Severus also had a vault of his own, which his mother had set up for him two days after their arrival in Windmere, and Sirius had one that his Uncle Alphard set up for him. The students that didn't have vaults, which was Lily, Remus, and Makena, had accounts opened for them. Lily traded the pounds that her parents had given her for school supplies and spending money to wizarding currency, and placed a few Galleons in her new vault so that it wouldn't sit there empty. Makena, who came from a family that didn't have much money, was on a scholarship, and money was transferred from the school account to her new vault so she could buy her supplies.

All the vaults were located within the mountain, as the main building wouldn't be able to hold them all without recourse to an extremely strong Undetectable Extension Charm, and having them underground wasn't an option when the location was an island. Remus, Sirius, and Severus, who had been to Gringotts at least once before, noted the similarity between how the banks were laid out. The main difference was only that the vaults in Windmere Bank were in a mountain instead of underground.

After that, the group went to the main street that had most of the shops. The first store was the Book Corner, run by Yun's parents. They and their two clerks helped the group get every required textbook on their supply list. Yun did not have to pay for his books, while the others received the ten percent discount that all students got.

The next stop was at Magical Robes, run by Katya's parents, who were Roma, for their school uniform. The uniform was robes of green with gold trim, a dark emerald green for males and a lighter jade green for females, and the school crest, an open book over a pair of crossed wands set in the center of a golden-colored cauldron, sewn on the chest. Each person got a set of four robes of lighter material for summer wear, and another set of four of heavier material for winter wear, along with dragonhide gloves, hat, and green and gold scarves and gloves for winter. Amina also got three headscarves of pale green with pale gold trim on the edges. Those that needed any other items of clothing purchased them. Again they received the ten percent student discount and then Professor Chavez took the group next door to Spelled Stationery, which sold writing supplies.

Everyone each got several pencils, quill pens, fountain pens, a few bottles of ink, notebooks, and a supply of paper and parchment. Kurt, who liked to sketch, also got some colored pencils and two sketch pads, while Nicole, who painted, got a set of watercolors, a few brushes, and a pad of watercolor paper. After that they went across the street to Windmere Apothecary for potion supplies and then next door to Charmed Cauldrons for cauldrons. The next store after that was Magical Supplies for their telescopes for Astronomy, scales, and the rest of the supplies on the list, except the wand.

The second-to-last stop was at an old shop that had a slightly faded sign reading "Nightwind Wands." It had opened the same year as the founding of the school, set up by Geoffrey Nightwind's sister, Felicity Nightwind, who had learned about wandmaking and wandlore from the Ollivander family in England. She had left ownership of the wand shop to Judith Selwyn, one of her former apprentices and later trusted employee, after her death, and ever since then, the shop had always been run by a witch that had been an apprentice to the previous owner.

The current owner was Marta Olafsen, a Swedish woman in her sixties with mixed silver and golden hair braided and wound in a crown about her head, striking sapphire eyes, and wearing robes a deep midnight blue. She had two assistants, a Vietnamese woman in her twenties named Lien Tran who was her current apprentice, and a young man named Lars Olafsen, who was Madam Olafsen's nephew. Lars proceeded to take the measurements of the group of students, while Madam Olafsen and Miss Tran took down wands for them to try out.

Nicole was first to get a wand that chose her, one of birch, ten inches, with unicorn hair core. James was next, with a wand of mahogany, eleven inches, phoenix feather core. Yukiko got a wand of cherry wood, nine-and-a-half inches, with the hair of a kitsune, or _huli jing_ as the Chinese called it, as the core. She hastily explained that kitsunes were magical beings native to Asia that could take the form of a fox or a human, and most of them had multiple tails in fox form. Marshall, who ended up trying almost every wand in stock, was last to find the perfect wand, one of silver lime wood, thirteen inches, with a dragon heartstring core.

The final store was Magical Menagerie, which had the same name as the one in Diagon Alley. The ones that didn't already have pets/familiars of their own and had gotten permission from their parents or guardians to get one looked over the animals available. Lily picked out a snowy owl and Katya picked out a white and brown Siamese cat. Sirius bought a barn owl, mainly so that he wouldn't have to use a school owl when sending letters to his Uncle Alphard or his cousin Andromeda and her family. With that, the group headed back to Nightwind School, where they put their purchases away and joined the rest of the first-years for lunch.

In the afternoon, the first-years were sent to the Assembly Hall, where the rows of chairs had been replaced by a circle of benches, with two long tables of cups and pitchers of drinks against the back wall. Professor Trueblood said, "I would like everyone to mingle and get to know each other better. While you naturally will know your roommates the best, we want you to at least be acquainted with the rest of those in your year. I'll leave you to it." With that, she left the room.

While everyone had introduced themselves yesterday, nobody remembered all the names. To make things simpler and avoid repeating themselves, they decided that each person would introduce him or herself again and go into a little detail about themselves. After that, everyone split up into smaller groups to talk.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Happy Halloween everyone! Also, to everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy, I wish you all the best and I am praying that you get through it.

On Wednesday, classes started. Schedules were handed out to the students at breakfast time. Remus looked at his and saw that on Mondays and Wednesdays he had Transfiguration, Defense Against Dark Arts, and Herbology, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays he had Charms, History of Magic, and Potions. Thursday evenings was Astronomy, and on Fridays were Muggle Culture, World Culture, and the Foreign Language class he had signed up for, which was Chinese. The only other person that had signed up to learn Chinese was Severus, and their main reason was so that they could hold private conversations with their roommates Yun and Marshall (the former having taught the latter already).

Ten minutes before nine o'clock, Remus quickly wiped his mouth, picked up his book bag, and went up to the third floor where the first-year Transfiguration classroom was located. Inside were three rows of double desks, with the teacher's desk, bookcase, large chalkboard, and two cupboards at the front. He took a seat in the first desk of the middle row and removed _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_, a notebook, two quills, and a jar of ink from his bag. Professor Chavez came out of her office, located next to the classroom, and began writing on the board. The rest of the class trickled in.

Remus noted that none of his roommates were in this class, but Lily was and she took the seat next to him. "Hi, Remus," she said as she removed her necessary supplies from her bag. "How are you?"

"Hi, Lily," he replied. "I'm good." He would have said more, but the bell rang, signaling that class was about to start. Professor Chavez set down the piece of chalk in her hand and turned from the board.

"Good morning, class," she said. "If you have forgotten, I am Professor Chavez. I will start by taking attendance." She picked up a sheet of paper on her desk and read, "Liselotte Baumbach."

When she finished, she briefly went over the course aims for the year that she had written on the board. After that, she had the class open to the first page of the textbook and proceeded to go over the first chapter, with them taking notes. After that, Lily and Remus were asked to pass out a match to each student. Professor Chavez demonstrated how to turn a match into a needle and then told the class to attempt to do the same. James Potter was the first to succeed, getting it on his fifth try.

"Good job, Mr. Potter," said Professor Chavez with a smile. She handed him a Chocolate Frog as a reward and then told him to see if he could turn the needle back into a match.

Yukiko Kamiya was the next to turn a match into a needle. Professor Chavez gave her a Chocolate Frog as a reward as well and the same instructions as James.

By the time class ended, only four other students had managed to turn their matches into needles, one of them being Remus. Lily had managed to turn her match silvery like a needle, but otherwise there was no change, and the rest of the class similarly had made small changes. Professor Chavez told them to review their notes for homework and then dismissed class.

As there was ten free minutes between the two morning classes, Remus took a quick stop at one of the boys' bathrooms before heading to Defense Against Dark Arts. The bell rang at half past ten, signaling the start of the next class. Professor Amper greeted the class, took attendance, and went over the course aims. She then had the class open to chapter one of _An Introduction to Magical Self-Defense_, where she went over Defense and the difference between hexes, jinxes, and curses. The students all took copious notes and were told to review them and the first chapter for homework.

When class ended, everyone went down to the dining hall for lunch. This was the one meal that could be eaten outside in the courtyard, as long as the weather was fine. Remus and his roommates decided to have lunch outside, so they packed up some sandwiches, fruit, and bottles of pumpkin juice in a basket and found a spot underneath a large elm tree to sit and eat. Yun sat down next to Remus and actually did a double take. "Are you all right, Remus? You look really pale and tired."

"I'm fine, Yun," answered Remus, knowing that his appearance was due to the full moon coming up that Sunday, on the fifth. "You don't have to worry about me."

Yun might have pursued things further, but the rest of the group they had gone shopping with turned up at that point, with three baskets between them. "Do you mind if we join you guys?" asked Claire.

"Not at all!" exclaimed Remus, seizing on an excuse to avoid further questioning from Yun. Besides, he liked and was friendly with the others. Furthermore, Severus was friends with Lily and on friendly terms with Sirius, and Yun, Marshall, Claire, Katya, James, and Fiona had all known each other previously (the latter two through attending the primary school in Windmere.)

The twelve others sat down and the contents of the four baskets were distributed. The sixteen of them discussed the classes they had so far as they. When the bell rang, warning everyone that they had ten minutes until the next class at one o'clock, the group sighed or groaned over the fact that lunch was over. They hastily packed up the remains of the lunch, Yukiko, Sirius, Marshall, and Amina dropped off the baskets in the dining hall, and they hurried to their respective classes.

Remus, with Claire, Yun, Yukiko, and sixteen others, headed for Greenhouse One for Herbology. It was the largest of the five greenhouses, for it was the one that grew all the vegetables and cooking herbs for the school. Professor Boledenka greeted the class and took attendance.

When he finished, he said, "Since most of you have had little or no experience working with plants, it is school policy to not have you start on magical plants, a number of which can be dangerous or require delicate handling. Therefore, you start out by working on the purely mundane plants in here to gain experience. To start with, we will identify the various fruits and vegetables growing here."

It turned out that the fruit growing there were ones like tomatoes and cucumbers, which were classed as vegetables in culinary use. Most of the vegetables were quickly identified, but there were a few that only Claire, Yukiko, and Yun recognized, as they were used mainly in Asian cooking. Those were green onions, chives, _bok choy_ (both the napa cabbage and the smaller kind), taro, _gailan_ (also known as Chinese broccoli, though it looked nothing like broccoli and only the leaves and part of the stem were edible), azuki and mung beans, snow peas, edamame (a kind of soybean), bitter and winter melons, _daikon_(a white root vegetable), and lotus root (which grew in a pool at one end of the greenhouse.)

After that, the class did some watering and weeding, and harvested enough vegetables to fill a bushel basket, which was then sent to the kitchens to be used for supper. At a quarter past two, class ended. Since the first and second years didn't have any electives, lessons were over for the day for them and they returned to their dorm rooms. One of the school requirements was that each student had to be involved in at least one extracurricular, such as joining one of the five Quidditch teams, being in the Drama Society, or joining one of the many clubs. Remus looked through the list of activities again, as he still hadn't figured out which one he wanted to join, other than that he probably wouldn't make it into a Quidditch team or be of any use in the Drama Society except as part of the stage crew.

"You could join the Potions Club," suggested Severus, who had signed up for it the day before.

"I'm not any good at brewing potions," replied Remus, who had helped his mother brew before and was awful at it. "Besides, I'm not interested in it like you are."

"There's the Chess Club and the Gobstones Club," pointed out Yun, who had joined the former one and had an older sister in the latter.

"Maybe to the Chess Club, but I don't think I want to join the Gobstones Club."

"Relax," said Marshall. "You've got until the end of next week to decide what extracurricular activities you want to join, Remus."

"Good point," said Remus with a sigh. He changed out of his school robes into a blue shirt and a pair of jeans and then headed for the library. Severus joined him, while Marshall went to the gymnasium and Yun went to the stables.

After dinner, the group of sixteen went to one of the study rooms, where they reviewed the notes they had taken in their classes. After that, they just relaxed and talked until curfew at nine thirty, and decided to call their group the Phoenix Club.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Sorry about the long time to update this. I have been busy with work. Happy Hannukah to any Jewish readers and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone else.

The next morning at breakfast, the Phoenix Club sat together at one end of the first-year table. There wasn't much conversation, as a number of them weren't morning people. After breakfast, James headed for his first class of the day, which was History of Magic.

Professor Park-Davis greeted the class, took roll call, and then had them turn to chapter one of _A Look at Magical History of Africa_. The chapter dealt with Egypt, which was where the oldest known records of witches and wizards were from. Many of the priests and priestesses of the various Egyptian gods and goddesses were magical, and wizards had served the pharaohs. This had even been mentioned in the story of Moses in the Bible and Torah, with the advisors that had served the pharaoh duplicating some the feats with magic that Moses and his brother Aaron had done with God's help.

The next class was Potions, with Professor van Herten as the instructor. After roll call, he gave the class a strict talking-to, making it clear that any sort misbehavior was not tolerated in his class, as Potions could be a dangerous subject. One person had been severely burned as a result of a potions mishap, and another time, someone had thought it fun to throw a firecracker in another's person cauldron, resulting in half of the class being covered in a De-Aging Potion. The antidote, an Aging Potion, had been available, so none of the students were stuck as babies or toddlers for very long, but it hadn't been fun at all. After that, Professor van Herten wrote down the instructions for brewing a simple cure for boils on the board and had the class pair up and work on the potion.

He demonstrated how the ingredients were to be prepared, and then spent the rest of class walking around and checking everyone's work. James paired up with Katya and they were able to brew a successful potion. Professor van Herten complimented them on their work when they were done and after getting their permission, bottled up some of it for the school infirmary.

After lunch was Charms class, taught by Professor Mills. She took attendance and then had the class turn to page one of _A Standard Book of Spells_ and demonstrated the first spell in it, a Color-Changing Charm, on a scarf, turning it from red to blue. She then had Marshall and Jóhanna Hinrikdóttir pass out ribbons to everyone in order to practice the spell. Lily was the first one to master the charm, turning her blue ribbon to a rainbow of colors in succession. Professor Mills gave her an approving smile and a Sugar Quill and then had her continue practicing the spell on the scarf.

By the time class ended, only five students hadn't turned their ribbons different colors, though they had managed to get a lighter or darker shade of the original color.

After classes ended, James went out to the Quidditch Pitch with Sirius, Claire, and Fiona. They stopped at the broomshed to borrow some school broomsticks, as first-years were not allowed to have their own at school unless they were on one of the school Quidditch or Quodpot teams. James and Claire, whose Quidditch talents were along the lines of Chasers, passed the practice Quaffle to each other and tried to get past Sirius, who was playing as Keeper, and score goals. Fiona flew around the pitch after the practice Snitch, catching and releasing it five times within an hour.

That evening, at nine o'clock, was Astronomy class, taught by Professor Astrid Larsen, who after introducing herself said jokingly, "I suppose it was destined that I become the Astronomy teacher, as 'Astrid' means 'star' in Scandinavia. That's the countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, for those that don't know." She then had everyone set up their telescopes and pointed out various constellations to them, with the class noting it all down on their star charts.

On Friday, right after breakfast, the seven students that didn't know English, one of them Makena, were called up to the staff table. Headmistress Nakamura, Father Vasquez, and Professor Nightwind (Claire's father), who knew Legilimency and Occlumency, used the former ability to do something that resulted in planting their knowledge of English into the students' minds. They couldn't do this with languages they weren't fluent in, as they hadn't worked out a way to the take the knowledge of a language from some other person's mind and giving it to another person.

Father Vasquez then gave the students a potion to heal them of the resulting headache and they headed off to their respective classes. Makena joined the rest of the Phoenix Club in their first class of the day, which was World Culture. The teachers for the first session were all the religious staff, who took turns giving an overview of their respective religions. When it ended, Rabbi Goldberg said that he would be returning next week to give a more in-depth lecture on Judaism.

After that, the Muggleborn students went to Wizarding Culture, while the ones that grew up in the Wizarding world went to Muggle Culture. The few students that was familiar with both worlds, like Severus and the ones that grew up in Windmere, had a study period.

After lunch were the foreign language classes. After the Phoenix Club had been formed, all the ones that hadn't signed up for Mandarin Chinese had switched to that class, except for Yun, Marshall, and Claire, who were fluent in it. The main reason for that was it was one of the languages very few students took, which would enable them to talk with very little chance of being understood by anyone that happened to overhear. The instructor for the Chinese class was Professor Li-Nightwind, Claire's mother and the sixth and seventh year Astronomy teacher.

"_Ni hao_," she said after the bell rang, signaling the start of class. "That means 'hello'." She repeated it again and then had the students say it one by one, correcting their pronunciation when needed. After that, she went over some basic phrases in Chinese, such as 'How are you?', 'My name is,' and 'Thank you,' with the students writing down the pronunciations and the translations in their notebooks. Professor Li-Nightwind then moved on to the terms for members of the family, explaining that there were different terms to differentiate between paternal and maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She finished the class with teaching them the Mandarin for the objects in the classroom and told them to practice what they had learned for homework, preferably with the help of their Chinese-speaking friends.

Dinnertime turned into an impromptu Mandarin lesson, since the non-Chinese speaking members of the Phoenix Club wanted to learn more. Claire pointed to her plate and said, "This is a '_pan zi_'. And the cup is a '_bei zi_'." She then held up her chopsticks and said, "_Kuai zi_. The literal translation is 'quick sticks'." Yun continued the lesson by telling them that a fork was a '_cha zi'_, a spoon was a '_shao zi_', and a knife was a '_dao_'. The two finished off with the rest of the tableware and basic food or meal-related words, like '_rou_' for 'meat', '_fan_' for 'food' or 'meal', '_chi_' for 'eat', '_shui guo_' for 'fruit', and '_cai_' for 'vegetable'.

It rained for most of Saturday, so the Phoenix Club spent the day in one of the recreational rooms in the girls' dormitory, since students weren't supposed to have anyone of the opposite gender in their bedrooms without school permission. Of course, some of the older students disregarded the rule and snuck their boyfriends or girlfriends into their rooms, but if a staff member caught them, there would be detentions handed out. Makena told her friends about what her life had been like in South Africa, and they in turn told her some stuff about the Wizarding world. While she wasn't the only Muggleborn person in the group, Lily had Severus to tell her all about the Wizarding world, and Marshall would only be considered a Muggleborn by blood purists since it was his parents that were Muggleborn.

At some point the conversation turned to magical creatures and beings. Remus had to suppress a flinch when the subject of werewolves came up. While most of the Phoenix Club had come from families that had attended Nightwind School and so were raised to not be prejudiced, there were still four that weren't. He had no idea what Lily and Makena would think about him if they knew he was a werewolf, since they were Muggleborn, and Severus and Sirius had no doubt been taught to at least be wary of werewolves. Considering the reputation that the Black family had, Sirius probably was taught to outright hate werewolves, though whether or not it stuck was debatable, since he had also been taught to look down on non-purebloods and blood traitors but hadn't gotten those lessons to stick.

"There are some werewolves that are really bad, like Fenir Greyback in Britain, but most are just good people and safe to be around except during the full moon," said Yun. "It's not their fault that they got bitten and turned, but there are witches and wizards that don't care about that and are prejudiced towards them."

Remus bit his lip and tried to hide how uncomfortable he was feeling. Claire seemed to be the only one that noticed, for she gave him a sharp look, but to his relief, she didn't say anything about it. Katya continued, "Professor Romano, who's the fourth-year History of Magic teacher, is a werewolf. On full moon nights, he's over at the wildlife preserve, since werewolves aren't a danger to animals. Sometimes the teachers that are Animagi will keep him company in their animal forms. An Animagus is someone that can turn into an animal, Makena. All the Transfiguration teachers are Animagi, and so is Headmistress Nakamura and a couple of others."

"So do Animagi have one animal form, or can they have several?" asked Makena.

"Just one, and their animal form usually has some sort of marking that corresponds with their human body," replied Claire. "Professor McGonagall, the fifth-year Transfiguration, has markings around her eyes like her glasses in her cat form, and Professor Chavez's birthmark shows up on the right wing of her eagle form."

To Remus's immense relief, the conversation continued on to special abilities that some witches and wizards had. When the Phoenix Club left for dinner, Claire took Remus to one side and asked in a whisper, "Are you prejudiced against werewolves or something, Remus? Because you seemed awfully uncomfortable when we were telling Makena about them."

"No, I'm not," he assured her hastily. "But the bad ones like Greyback do scare me." Claire accepted this and dropped the subject.

The next day, Marshall, Severus, and Yun noticed how tired and ill-looking Remus was. Knowing that he couldn't just tell his roommates that he was fine when he would have to leave before dinner and join Professor Romano at the wildlife preserve to spend the full moon, he used that as an excuse to stay in the room and rest. Just before dinner, he told his roommates that he was going to the Infirmary and left.

At dinner, the rest of the Phoenix Club noticed that Remus wasn't there and Severus explained, "Remus said he was feeling worse and went to the Infirmary."

"I hope he's going to be all right," said Nicole, looking concerned.

"I'm sure he will be," said Marshall. "Father Vasquez or one of the other medical staff will give him some healing potions for whatever's bothering him."

"And we can visit Remus after dinner and see how he's doing," pointed out Yukiko.

However, when the Phoenix Club went down to the Infirmary after dinner, Reverend van Herten, the Protestant chaplain and Mediwitch on duty, informed them that Remus wasn't there.

"But Remus said that he wasn't feeling well and was going to the infirmary!" protested Yun.

Reverend van Herten stopped looking puzzled and said, "Oh, Remus did come to the infirmary, but he's no longer here. Professor Romano took him to the clinic in Windmere. Don't worry about your friend. He'll soon recover and should be back in class on Tuesday. All right?"

The Phoenix Club left the Infirmary, with several of them now extremely worried, wondering what serious illness Remus had if he had to go down to the clinic. The rest, however, started to suspect something else, and asked that they all go to an empty classroom to talk, since there would be no other students in the classrooms area to overhear them. Once in there, James pointed out the window. "Look at the moon that's just rising. It's a _full_ moon."

"So?" asked Dylan. "What does that have to do with- Oh! Reverend van Herten said that Professor Romano took Remus to the clinic."

Lily frowned. "And Katya said yesterday that Professor Romano was a werewolf, so he would be going to the wildlife preserve tonight."

"That would mean Remus is a werewolf," said Amina. "He hasn't looked well for the past few days, and one of the teachers, I'm guessing Professor Romano, hasn't either. I wish Remus had told us. Did he really think we'd stop being his friend if we knew?"

"He must have," said Claire. "Or at least thought some of us might. Well, that explains why he seemed so uncomfortable when we were telling Makena about werewolves. I thought he might have been prejudiced against them, but when I asked him later, he said he was just scared of the bad ones."

"He must have been bitten by one of the bad ones then," Sirius pointed out. "Probably Fenir Greyback, since he's the main bad werewolf in Britain. I heard that he purposely goes out and bites kids on full moon nights if their parents have opposed him in some way as revenge."

Lily winced. "That's terrible! As for Remus not telling us, he might not have felt ready yet. Not all of us come from families that attended Nightwind School, so he wouldn't know how we'd take the news."

"But the rest of us did!" protested Fiona. "We weren't raised to be prejudiced against werewolves, so he could have told us."

"And just because I didn't attend Nightwind School doesn't mean I'd hate Remus," said Severus. "He's a good friend and roommate and being a werewolf doesn't change that. It's not his fault he happened to be outside on a full moon night and Greyback or some other werewolf attacked and bit him."

"And I do not hate him either," said Makena. "After the prejudice I went through in South Africa, how would it look if I were prejudiced against him?"

Kurt sighed. "Well, when Remus comes back we can let him know that we figured out he's a werewolf and he's still our friend. And that we'll keep his secret from the rest of the school." The others nodded and they decided to go back to their respective rooms.

On Tuesday, Remus, still looking a little tired, returned and was present for the day's classes. When school was over for the day, the Phoenix Club went to the study room that had the least chance of anyone overhearing them. Once inside, Dylan said, "Remus, we've figured out your secret."

Remus turned pale, but before he could try to say something, Marshall continued, "We all went to visit you in the Infirmary, but Reverend van Herten said that you weren't there and that Professor Romano had taken you to Windmere Clinic."

"I pointed out that it was a full moon, and those that hadn't already guessed that you might be a werewolf then realized it," said James. "Not that it mattered to us. I mean, mattered in a bad way. We know it's not your fault that you got bitten, Remus, and don't hate you for it."

By this point, Remus was staring at his lap, his cheeks turning pink. Severus said, "You could have told us. The ones from families that attended Nightwind School weren't raised to be prejudiced against werewolves, and the four besides you that didn't attend aren't prejudiced either. We're not going to like or trust werewolves like Fenir Greyback, but you're in no way like him. You're our friend and we're not going to abandon you."

The others nodded and Sirius asked, "How did you become a werewolf, anyway? I mean, who bit you?"

The blush faded somewhat as Remus raised his head and very quietly said, "Sev, you mentioned Fenir Greyback. Well, my father had done something that made him mad and he bit me in revenge. I didn't think that any magical school would accept me until Professor Romano showed up with the invitation to Nightwind School. Professor Dumbledore showed up two weeks later with an invitation to Hogwarts, since he doesn't have a prejudice against werewolves either, but I told him I was going to Nightwind. He was surprised, but pleased that another school was also liberal-minded, and wished me well."

"I thought it might be Greyback," said Sirius. "Since he's the main bad werewolf in Britain and all. I'm sorry that it happened to you."

Remus shrugged. "It could be worse, I guess. Anyway, thanks for your support, guys. Professor Romano suggested that I tell you guys when we Portkeyed over to the wildlife preserve, saying that my friends wouldn't abandon me, but I wasn't sure if I should."

"Did you really think so little of us, Remus?" demanded Nicole. "Well, I guess we really can't blame you, since a good many people in the Wizarding world are prejudiced against werewolves. If I weren't from a family that attended Nightwind, I might have been one of those people."

After a minute of rather uncomfortable silence due to the emotion in the room, Dylan suggested that they get started on their homework. The others eagerly seized on this idea and they took out their textbooks and notes.


	7. Chapter 7

On Friday were the Quidditch tryouts. The captains of the four school teams would select which ones were the best and then draw names to see which ones would go to which teams, with the exception of any previous reserves that were being promoted to full team status. Those reserves being promoted would stay with whatever team they were with. Sirius, James, Claire, Fiona, Yun, Nicole, and Dylan attended tryouts, with the rest of the Phoenix Club sitting in the stands with a number of other students and cheering them on.

When tryouts ended, James was selected as a Chaser for the Ruby team, the only first-year to become a full member of a team. Sirius joined him as a reserve beater, while Claire was a reserve Chaser for the Sapphire team and Fiona became the reserve Seeker for the Emerald team. Yun, Dylan, and Nicole didn't make it on a team, though the captain of the Diamond team did tell them that they were very good fliers and just needed more practice in the specific positions that they had tried out for.

The Phoenix Club had also sorted out what extra-curricular activities they wanted to be involved in. Severus, Lily, Kurt, and Katya joined the Potions Club, and Lily had also joined the regular Choir, not the Show Choir that required auditions, with Claire, Yuki, and Dylan. Remus had finally decided to join the Book Club for the first- and second-year students, with Makena, Amina, Fiona, and Severus. Yun, Marshall, Yuki, and James had joined the Chess Club, and Nicole and Sirius auditioned for the Drama Society and had been accepted. The Drama Society did both Muggle and wizarding plays and musicals, and the one for the first term this year was William Shakespeare's _A Midsummer's Night Dream_. Nicole had been given the minor role of Moth, one of Queen Titania's fairy servants, and Sirius, due to his mischievous nature, was the understudy for the role of Robin Goodfellow, or Puck.

Classes continued to be interesting. The third Defense lesson was a practical one, with everyone taking turns attempting to do the the Leg-Locker Curse, _Locomotor Mortis_, on several dummies set up at the front of the classroom. Everyone was able to do the spell by the end of the lesson, and Professor Amper informed them that if they wanted more practice they could do so on the dummies in the evenings. "Under no circumstances are any of you to do the Leg-Locker Curse on another student, unless it is during a supervised dueling session. If you are found doing so, you will be given at least one detention, and it won't be writing lines."

September turned into October and the Phoenix Club members that were learning Mandarin had learned enough that they could get around if they were suddenly dropped in China, though their pronunciations could use some work. Claire and Yun helped with the pronunciations and they and Marshall were always willing to hold practice conversations and teach new terms. Meanwhile, the three of them had signed up for French, and they were practicing their vocabulary with Nicole, who was from France, and Dylan, who spoke French fluently as he was from Canada and had a mother who was French-Canadian.

The fourth of October was a full moon and Remus left with Professor Romano and a sixth-year girl that was also a werewolf for the wildlife preserve after an early dinner. He returned the next day, after dinner, and the members of the Phoenix Club that were in the classes he missed today lent him their notes and told him the homework assignments.

All the religious staff finished their lessons in the World Culture class and the first-years went to the next lesson wondering who would be teaching. It turned out to be Deputy Headmaster Ihejirika and Professor Afolayan, the fourth-year Potions teacher, both dressed in colorful African robes. They introduced themselves, with the former stating that he was Nigeria and latter stating that she was from South Africa. The two then proceeded to go over African culture, and when class ended, informed the students that they would be back next week to finish the session, as Africa was a large continent and the culture varied and broad.

Amina had taken to not wearing her headscarf, called a _hijab_, when she was with the Phoenix Club, only donning it when she had to be around the rest of the school. She would have much rather not wear it all, but she took her religion seriously and followed the requirements and tenets of Islam. Which meant that when the Islamic month of Ramadan started on October 21, she had to fast during the daylight hours. Though Amina didn't really have to as she was still considered a child, she did so anyway as it would be good practice for when she did have to and Muslim children were encouraged to complete as many fasts as they could. She got up before dawn and joined the other Muslim students for an early breakfast, and did not eat dinner until after sundown. She was not the only member of the Phoenix Club who ever had to fast, for Kurt, being Jewish, had fasted for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur at the end of September.

The Friday before Halloween, the the first-years were surprised to see Father Vasquez and Mrs. Llewellyn the World Culture classroom. "Good morning," said Father Vasquez when class started. "You are probably wondering why we are here when the religion lessons are supposed to be over with. Well, October thirty-first is this Sunday, and that is the secular holiday of Halloween, and the start of the Catholic holiday of Hallowmas, which consists of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day."

"And for Wiccans and some neo-pagans, primarily Celtic ones, it is Gaelic festival of Samhain," said Mrs. Llewellyn. "Therefore, we will be telling you about the holidays, both the religious and secular celebrations of it. I will start with Samhain, as it is the older holiday. First, it was one of the four main festivals of the Gaelic calendar, marking the last harvest and beginning of winter. Traditionally, Samhain was a time to take stock of the herds and food supplies. Cattle were brought down to the winter pastures after six months in the higher summer pastures. It was also the time to choose which animals would need to be slaughtered for the people to survive the winter. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Samhain was seen as a time when the 'door' to the Otherworld opened enough for the souls of the dead, and other beings, to come into our world. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them."

She continued lecturing for fifteen minutes and then Father Vasquez took over. "Samhain is believed to have influenced All Hallows' Eve. As I told you in the lesson about Catholicism, when the Catholic Church was trying to convert people in its early days, they often incorporated pagan traditions to gain more followers. Eventually the two festivals morphed in the secular holiday of Halloween. Christians traditionally believed that the veil between the material world and the afterlife thinned on All Hallows' Eve. In order to prevent recognition by a soul, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities. This tradition continues today with people often dressing up in a costume of some sort for Halloween."

"November first is All Saints' Day and the following day is All Souls' Day. All Saints' Day, which is also known as All Hallows Day, is a holy day to honor all the saints and martyrs, both known and unknown. All Souls' Day focuses on honoring all faithful Christians. In the old days, children would go out on that day to various houses and beg for some money or food, usually a 'soul cake', a special cake made for the day. This survives today as the practice of trick-or-treating, as the North Americans call it, or guising, as the British call it. That is when children don costumes and go around the neighborhood asking for sweets. In the United States and Canada, they normally say 'trick-or-treat' when asking for the sweets. The word 'trick' refers to the mostly non-serious 'threat' to perform some sort of mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. Muggle children will don costumes of what they believe to be supernatural beings, such as monsters, ghosts, and witches and wizards. In recent times, they have also dressed up as popular characters from fiction and well-known people, or as princesses, animals, and other generic types."

He continued talking about the various Halloween and Hallowmas traditions, and included information about the Day of the Dead that was celebrated at the same time in Mexico, which was where he was originally from. Right before the lesson ended, he and Mrs. Llewellyn told the class that there would be a Halloween party tomorrow from six until ten in the evening at the dining hall, and students could dress up in costumes if they so wished. "If you do not have anything that could be used for a costume, you may borrow some things from the Drama Society," said Mrs. Llewellyn. "Just remember to return them on Sunday." The bell rang then and she finished, "Class is dismissed."

Everyone gathered their things and filed out of the classroom, discussing the party and what costumes they could come up with as they did so. Severus ended up spending most of his study period with Claire, Yun, Katya, Marshall, and Sophie and Stefan Rybar, the twin children of the groundskeepers, discussing costume ideas and rummaging through the costume trunks in the Drama Society storeroom. The latter two mostly talked to each other, for while they were friendly, they tended to stick to themselves and so far had little interaction with anyone other than their roommates outside of classes. Claire plucked out a pair of sparkling pale blue fairy wings and a circlet of artificial pink roses from a trunk and after some further rummaging, found a stick with a gold star at the end, clearly a prop that was the Muggle idea of a fairy wand.

"I have a pretty green and silver dress that would go great with all this," she said. "Well, other than the color, but I can do a Color-Changing Charm to turn it pink or blue, and voilà! I'm now a fairy. Or the Muggle version of one, anyway. Have you found anything useful, guys?"

The others shook their heads and continued looking. Severus finally found a belt that had various vials and pouches hanging from it. He could fill the vials with colored water and pretend they were potions, stuff some herbs and grass in the pouches, and carry his cauldron stirrer, and so look like a Potions Master. With his costume decided, he offered to help Katya come up something, but she shook her head. "I've decided to dress up as a Gypsy fortune-teller. I've got the clothes, what with my being Rom and all, and I'll just borrow this deck of cards and set of bangle bracelets to complete the costume. If lugging a crystal ball around all evening wouldn't be so inconvenient, I'd borrow the one on that table there."

Marshall had decided to dress up as a Muggle magician, and the fact that he did know several sleight-of-hand and card tricks would help with the costume. Yun found a monkey mask and a staff and was about to put them back when Claire exclaimed, "Hey, you could be Sun Wukong!"

"You're right," said Yun, looking at the mask and staff in a new light. "I can do a Color-Changing Charm on the staff to turn it red and gold and ask my sister to magically alter the mask so that it looks more like Sun Wukong's face and has the headband."

"Who's Sun Wukong?" asked Severus curiously. "Besides the fact that he must be some Chinese monkey, based on the mask."

"He's also known as the Monkey King and is well-known character in Chinese culture," replied Marshall. "There's a book called _Journey to the West_, that's the English translation of the title, that tells all about him. He burst out of a stone and, er, Yun, what happens next?"

"He become the king of a tribe of monkeys, which involved going through a waterfall and finding a good place for them to live in the cave behind it," said Yun. "Then he became the student of a Taoist immortal and learns a bunch of transformations and other magical arts. When he started showing off to the other students, he got kicked out and after that, he traveled to the ocean kingdom, which was where he got his staff. It's a magical staff that can change size, multiply itself, and fight at the command of its true master, which turned out to be Sun Wukong."

"And don't forget all the trouble he got into on his quest to become immortal," added Claire. "After he got reported to the Jade Emperor of Heaven, he got invited to Heaven in hopes of making him more manageable. Sun Wukong got put in charge of the stables, which was the lowest job there. When he found out, and also got excluded from a banquet that everyone else got invited to, he got mad and caused quite a bit of trouble. Stealing and eating the Peaches of Immortality, which only ripen every five hundred years, and Pills of Longevity was just part of it. The Jade Emperor finally had to call on Buddha to put an end to things."

"After being imprisoned for five hundred years, Sun Wukong was released to help a Buddhist monk on his quest to journey west to India to get some religious texts," said Marshall. "To keep him line, he was tricked into putting on a magical headband that would tighten and cause his head pain whenever the monk said a special chant. Two others joined them on the trip in order to atone for previous crimes, plus a dragon prince who ate the monk's horse and as punishment had to transform into a horse and take the original's place. There's a copy of the English translation in the library if you want the full details, Severus."

"I might check it out," said Severus, since this Sun Wukong sounded rather interesting and he did like to read. At that point, the bell rang, signifying the end of class, and the group gathered up the things they had selected and went to put them in their rooms and grab lunch.

At lunch, the rest of the Phoenix Club discussed costume ideas. By the time the meal ended, most of them had come up with what they wanted to dress up as and the Phoenix Club decided to to go to the Drama Society storeroom after dinner to look for components. They would have gone after class, but James had Quidditch practice, Sirius and Nicole had to attend a rehearsal, and the Book Club had a meeting.

The following morning, Kurt attended service with the other Jewish students in the small synagogue down in Windmere. Many of the other students also went to Windmere, since it was the one weekend a month that students were allowed to visit the town, unless they had family there, in which case they could visit them on any weekend. Severus visited his mother for an hour and introduced Dylan and Amina to her, the only members of the Phoenix Club that she hadn't met yet.

When the Jewish service was over, Kurt met his friends at the Windmere Inn for lunch. Partway through, a group of fifth years, a couple wearing the bronze badge of one of the school proctors, walked in. Yun spotted his older sister, Mei-Hua among the group and got up to ask her about altering the monkey mask he'd found to look more like Sun Wukong's face. She agreed to do so. One of her friends, a pretty blonde that was wearing the proctor badge, looked over as Yun rejoined his friends and gasped.

She walked over to the long table and said, "Sirius! I didn't know that you were here. I thought you would be at Hogwarts, since I didn't think Aunt Walburga or Uncle Orion would let you attend Nightwind School after what happened with Andri."

Sirius shook his head. "I chose to attend Nightwind and got disowned for it. What are you doing here, Cissy? I thought you had transferred to Hogwarts in January because of Andri being disowned last year."

Narcissa Black made a face. "I only transferred because I was pretty much made to. The term at Hogwarts was good, but it just wasn't the same as being at Nightwind, so when the school year ended, I wrote Headmistress Nakamura and asked to transfer back. She was willing and on July 6th, Professor McGonagall, the fifth-year Transfiguration teacher, came to set up arrangements. My parents threw a fit and tried to forbid me from going, but I insisted and Professor McGonagall backed me up, so they disowned me. The scholarship fund is paying for my school supplies, and Mrs. Kimball gives me some spending money in exchange for helping her in the library on the weekends."

"I got my letter from Nightwind School on July 5th, so that would be why I didn't know what happened to you," said Sirius thoughtfully. "But why didn't Uncle Alphard mention it? He sent me two letters since I've been here and all he's said was that the rest of the family wasn't speaking to him since he supports my decision and is paying for my school things and some stuff about his work."

"If they aren't speaking to him, they might not have told him about me," said Narcissa. "I'll write to Uncle Alphard and let him know."

"Okay," said Sirius. He then introduced her to the Phoenix Club and vice versa, and she in turn introduced him to her boyfriend Lucius Malfoy, a fellow proctor who had long blond hair and gray eyes. Sirius, who hadn't been close to his cousin until she went to Nightwind School and lost much of her snobbishness, warned Lucius, "You'd better not do anything to hurt Cissy, or I'll hex you. My friend Sev taught me one that'll give you boils."

Lucius kept a straight face and said solemnly, "Don't worry, Sirius. I would never do anything to hurt Narcissa. Besides, she'd hex me first if I did."

Narcissa rolled her eyes and said, "If you're done threatening my boyfriend now, Sirius, we'll join our friends for lunch. See you at the party tonight."

The Halloween party that evening was great. Both the dining hall and the assembly room were decorated in a Halloween theme, complete with four giant pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns. The long tables in the dining hall had been removed, except for three at one end of the room that was filled with drinks and food, and was replaced with smaller tables so that groups of friends could sit together. The assembly room had been cleared of everything except the decorations and benches placed around the walls, and the stage at the front of the room had a magical phonograph that played music for the students to dance to. About a third of the staff members were present as monitors to make sure that things didn't get out of hand.

Since the music playing was mostly Halloween related and not the kind suited for ballroom dancing, the Phoenix Club had no problem going out on the dance floor a few times. In between dancing, they hung out in the dining hall, chatting amongst themselves, socializing with the other students, and grabbing some drinks and snacks. At ten o'clock, Professor Trueblood turned off the music and the party ended. There were some groans at the fun being over, but she reminded everybody about the Halloween feast the following night, and with that, everyone headed to their rooms.

Author's Note: The information on Hallowmas and Samhain was taken from Wikipedia, so it should be accurate. I hadn't originally planned on having the Malfoy family attend Nightwind School, but when I was writing the fourth chapter, I started considering it. Based off the information about the Malfoy family that was revealed on Pottermore, namely that before the Statue of Secrecy was instated, they had hobnobbed with higher-up Muggle society, I decided that it could make sense for their attendance. So about fifty years after the school's founding, a Malfoy received an acceptance letter and she decided to attend. Her younger brother did the same when he turned eleven, and ever since then, the Malfoys have attended Nightwind School and as a consequence, aren't into the Dark Arts, though they are highly respected in Britain. Since Narcissa Black did have some redeeming qualities in the books, I decided to still have her end up as Lucius's wife, which meant that she would have to attend Nightwind School in order for them to meet and fall in love. As I did not mention her being one the Blacks that had attended the school, I came up with the scenario in the chapter to explain it.


	8. Chapter 8

The first Saturday in November was the first Quidditch match of the school year, between the Ruby and Diamond teams. The Phoenix Club all wore crimson rosettes or jewel-shaped red badges to show their support for the Ruby team. They had made a large banner that read "Potter for the win!" and Kurt and Nicole, who were the artistic ones in the group, had painted a picture of James on his broom, throwing a Quaffle towards a goalpost. Lily and Remus, who were good at Charms, then did spells to make the paint flash different colors and have the picture move.

James, who was feeling slightly nervous, felt much better when he saw the banner and his friends cheering him on. All trace of butterflies in his stomach disappeared, and he focused on working with the other two Chasers, Captain and sixth-year Francesca Ciccolini and fourth-year Petra Katsaros, on getting the Quaffle and scoring as much as possible. Ten minutes in, the Ruby team had scored nine times, James having scored three of the goals and assisting in two more, while the Diamond team had scored only twice, thanks to the excellent Ruby Keeper, fifth-year Hinrik Magnússon.

After ten more minutes, the score was one hundred ninety to forty, in Ruby's favor. A couple minutes after that, both teams managed to each score once more, and that was when both Seekers spotted the Snitch. Ruby Seeker Cecily Murray, a fourth year, and Diamond Seeker Dimitri Kozlov, a third year, went streaking after it. They were neck-to-neck with each other when one of the Diamond Beaters, a sixth-year named Kaito Hamasaki, hit a Bludger towards Cecily. She swerved to avoid it, which allowed Dimitri to pull ahead and catch the Snitch. That ended the match, with the Ruby and Diamond teams tied at two hundred points each.

There were some groans from the stands over the fact that there was no clear winner, but nobody was too upset over the tie. The announcer, a sixth-year named Adisa Keita, sounded quite pleased as he called out the results, probably because Francesca and Kaito were both his friends, which made it difficult for him to pick one team to support over the other. As it was tradition to hold an informal party after every Quidditch match, most, if not all, of the school headed for the dining hall once the two teams emerged from the changing rooms.

Since it was a tie, the students that had gone on ahead of the others had unearthed the rarely used yellow banner that read, "CONGRATULATIONS! IT'S A TIE!" and hung it up with the other decorations in the dining hall. The usual tables had been moved to the walls and were now filled with refreshments, while smaller round tables and chairs were placed in the resulting cleared space. The Phoenix Club clustered around James and complimented him on his great flying and Chaser skills, while he in turn thanked them for the banner they had made for him.

The Saturday after that was the match between the Sapphire and Emerald teams. Unfortunately, several students had fallen ill with the flu or rather nasty colds throughout the week, one of them being the Emerald Seeker, second-year Elspeth MacDowell. However, this meant that Fiona, as the reserve, got to take over as Seeker, and she performed admirably, spotting and catching the Snitch eight minutes into the match. The Emerald team won, one hundred ninety points to sixty, and the green banner that read, "CONGRATULATIONS TO THE EMERALD TEAM ON THEIR WIN!" was hung up in the dining hall for the celebratory party.

The Phoenix Club had quickly made a similar banner for Fiona when she had been told Thursday that Elspeth had fallen ill and she would have to play in the match. The only differences were that it had Fiona's name and Kurt and Nicole had painted her catching the Snitch.

The following day, 14 November, was Sirius's twelfth birthday, the first one of a member of the Phoenix Club. The Phoenix Club had decided on having everyone (except the birthday girl or boy) contribute two Sickles for every birthday that came up in their group, since not all of them received enough pocket money to be able to buy individual gifts. The same also applied for Christmas presents. With the Galleon and thirteen Sickles the money totaled up to, the Phoenix Club bought Sirius a book on Quidditch, two prank items, and some sweets.

The final Quidditch match for the autumn term was between the Sapphire and Diamond teams. After an hour-long match, the Sapphire team narrowly won, three hundred ninety points to three hundred sixty. There was the traditional celebratory party, and since the day of the match coincided with the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marked the end of the month of Ramadan, the Muslim students were all wearing nice clothes. Amina wore an outfit that she said was called a s_halwar kameez_, which consisted of a long tunic and loose, billowy trousers. Her top was pale pink with gold embroidery, and the trousers was a darker rose pink with the same embroidery. Her head scarf was pale pink and had darker pink flowers embroidered at the edges.

The weather grew colder, and as they were far enough north, snow fell. The grounds were covered in a carpet of white, and students could be found outside on the weekends, making snowmen or snow sculptures or having snowball fights. The pond froze, and after a few of the teachers had cast some spells on the ice so that it would stay hard and not crack or break until spring, ice skating was allowed. Makena and Amina, coming from warm climates, and Sirius and Remus, who never had the opportunity, had never skated before, but began learning how to skate with the help of the rest of the Phoenix Club.

Christmas and winter decorations were put up in the common areas and hallways. The World Culture class in the last Friday of November was taught by Professors van Herten, Larsen, Chavez, and Reverend van Herten. The van Hertens went over St. Nicholas Day (December 6th) as celebrated in the Netherlands, Advent (the start of the preparation of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas), and various Christmas traditions in the United States and Great Britain, finishing off with Boxing Day, the day after Christmas when the well-off traditionally boxed up items to be given to the poor or their servants. Professor Larsen went over St. Lucia's Day (December 13th), which was primarily celebrated in Scandinavia, and Scandinavian Christmas traditions, and Professor Chavez went over Christmas traditions in Spain and those of Spanish descent in the Americas.

The following Friday, Professors Amper, Mills, Boledenka, Romano, and Hertz went over Christmas traditions of other countries. The second Friday in December was taught by Rabbi Goldberg, Father Vasquez, and Mrs. Llewellyn. Father Vasquez went over the religious significance of Christmas and the twelve days of celebration that it originally had, while Rabbi Goldberg went over Hanukkah, which started on the following Monday. Mrs. Llewellyn finished the lecture by going over Yule, also known as Midwinter, as celebrated by Wiccans and pagans, and the ancient Roman winter solstice festival of Saturnalia.

On Monday, the Hanukkah decorations went up, and that evening, all the Jewish students and some of their friends gathered in the Assembly Hall, where Professor Goldberg, the other Arithmancy teacher, lit the extra candle called a _s__hamash_ and used it to light the first candle on the menorah. Rabbi Goldberg recited the traditional three blessings in Hebrew when his wife was done. When he finished, Professor Horowitz, the fifth-year Charms teacher, recited a hymn known as the _Hanerot Halalu_, and Professor Goldberg led the Jewish students in singing another hymn called _Ma'oz Tzur_. Rabbi Goldberg then read a few Psalms from the Torah, and after the candles had burned down completely, he and his wife ended the evening by handing out chocolate coins wrapped in gold and silver-colored foil to look like Sickles and Galleons.

On Wednesday, 15 December, was Nicole's birthday, and the Phoenix Club got her a set of watercolors (since she had used up most of her current paints on the banners), a new paintbrush, and some sweets. The week progressed, and on Friday, classes were canceled for the yearly Winter festival Nightwind School had. There was a contest for best snow sculpture, and the Phoenix Club won first place among the first-years for their sculpture of a dragon. After that, there was an ice skating contest, divided by year, and Lily came in second place among the first and second years. In the afternoon was a party, ending with a feast at seven-thirty that was composed of various Christmas, Hanukkah, and winter foods eaten around the world.

The following evening was the formal Winter Ball for fourth-years and above, except for the few third-years that were invited as an older student's date. After an early supper for the younger students, the Phoenix Club watched as the Dining Hall was redone by some of the teachers and house-elves for the ball and the older students came in garbed in their dress robes or formal wear native to their country or culture. Narcissa, who was wearing dress robes of sapphire with silver embroidery and matching jewelry, spotted Sirius and waved to him as she passed. Her boyfriend Lucius was with her, in dress robes of dark silver with sable embroidery, and he waved as well.

On Monday was the start of the holidays, and all the students that didn't live in Windmere and were going home for the break met in the Assembly Hall at eleven in the morning to take their various Portkeys home. James had gotten permission from his parents to invite Sirius over for the holidays, and the latter, after getting permission from his Uncle Alphard and Professor Llewellyn, had accepted. Narcissa was spending the break with the Malfoys, as Lucius had invited her and his parents wanted to meet her.

Severus, Claire, Yun, Marshall (who was going to spend the holidays with his best friend), Makena (whom Katya's family had invited over), and Katya saw their friends off and then headed down to Windmere. Severus's mother was at work, so after he dropped off the small suitcase containing the things he would need over break in his room, went to spend the rest of the day with his friends. Mrs. Huang had invited him over for lunch, so he joined the Huangs and Marshall in their flat over the bookstore. Mrs. Huang served _jiao zi_, or dumplings, one platter with vegetable filling, another with ground beef and chives filling, and a third with ground pork and napa cabbage filling. Mr. Huang asked his children and Severus and Marshall how their school term had been, and Severus practiced the Chinese he had learned so far and learned some more vocabulary.

After lunch the boys went to Yun's room, where they had a game of Exploding Snap. The three girls turned up after the game, and since Yun's room wasn't large enough to fit all six of them, they went to the living room where Yun got out some board games, a mix of Muggle and magic ones. They decided on Monopoly, which all of them, except Makena, had played before. After explaining how to play the game to her, they had a fun afternoon playing. Mr. Huang had used magic to alter the play money so that it read as Galleons, and had done the same to the prices listed on all the property cards, but otherwise everything was the same. Since this Monopoly edition was the American one, Severus had to get used to the different properties in it, since he had only ever played the British edition with Lily (and a very reluctant Petunia Evans) before.

Katya ended up winning the game, and after that, the six scattered for dinner. Severus went to his flat to find that his mother was home from work and was in the middle of making stew. "Hi Mum," he said, taking off his coat and hat. "How was work?"

"Hi, Sev," Eileen replied. "It was busy. I had to brew lots of Pepper-Up Potion, cough syrups, and Fever Reducers since it's cold and flu season. Could you get out the bread from the bread box and set the table please?" As he did so, she continued, "The divorce went through. I reverted to my maiden name last Saturday. Do you want to change from Snape to Prince, too? I can set that up tomorrow. I know you hate Tobias for what he did to us."

Severus made a face at the mention of his father and answered, "I'd like that, Mum. Severus Prince sounds nice."

"All right, I'll stop at the Ministry during my lunch break tomorrow and get that done, dear." She added some salt and a pinch of pepper to the stew and added, "We can decorate the tree after dinner. I decided to wait until you came home for the holidays to do it."

He grinned at his mother, for he remembered helping her decorate the Christmas tree in years past, when his ex-father hadn't been so abusive or drunk. After eating and washing the dishes, Severus and Eileen went into the living room, where she had set up the artificial tree before leaving for work that morning. She had a small cardboard box of ornaments salvaged from the house at Spinner's End, and another small box of ornaments that she had bought the past weekend. The two decorated the tree, singing carols and eating the biscuits (cookies) that she had baked yesterday as they worked. When they were done, Eileen waved her wand and magically lit the lights on the tree.

The two admired the tree for several moments, and then Severus went to his room to do some reading and write in his journal before going to bed.

Author's Note: I have absolutely no idea when Sirius's birthday is, other than his page in the Harry Potter wiki stating that he was born in the autumn of 1959. Therefore, I just picked a day in November for it, and until J.K. Rowling reveals his actual birthdate, I am going with what I picked for this fic.


	9. Chapter 9

Since it was the holidays, Katya took the opportunity to sleep in, not rising until after nine o'clock. When she did get up, she took care of her morning business and got dressed in a rose-pink sweater her maternal grandmother had knitted for her and jeans. Makena, who was usually an early riser and had never gotten up later than eight in the morning, was already up and in the kitchen, washing her breakfast dishes. "Nice to see you up, sleepyhead," she teased as Katya walked into the kitchen.

"And you need to learn to sleep in sometimes," Katya retorted good-naturedly. She grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and went to the stove, where a pot half-full of the oatmeal that her mother had made earlier was sitting, a Warming Charm on it. She filled the bowl with oatmeal, poured in some milk and honey, and grabbed a spoon from the utensil drawer. Makena poured her a glass of her favorite breakfast drink, orange juice, and after putting away the just-washed and dried dishes, joined Katya at the table.

"I wish the rest of the world could be like Nightwind School and Windmere," Makena said quietly. Katya, Remus, and Marshall were her closest friends in the Phoenix Club, as they were the only ones that had some real understanding in regards to prejudice. Remus faced prejudice for being a werewolf among the conservative or less tolerant members of the wizarding world, which unfortunately was in a majority. Marshall's family was from the Southern United States, which was in the process of eradicating segregation between blacks and whites, much like the apartheid in South Africa. As for Katya, she was Romany, and the Rom, or Gypsies, had faced prejudice for centuries, including being targeted in the Holocaust along with the Jews and anyone else that the Nazis considered 'subhuman'. The only reason that her parents and grandparents had escaped it was being at Windmere and Nightwind School during World War Two. Other Romany people, mainly the ones without magic, hadn't been so lucky.

"Someday it will be," said Katya. "At any rate, I know that apartheid will end someday in South Africa. It might take a decade or two, but it will. Look at the United States. It's getting rid of segregation. I know that there will still be individual people that are racist, but things are getting better."

"What about what's going on Great Britain?" asked Makena. "You know James, Sirius, Remus, Sev, and Fiona told us about the Dark Lord there that's trying to take power. He's got a bunch of followers called Death Eaters and they're attacking Muggles and Muggleborns."

"That's just one part of the world, Makena. And you know the British Ministry of Magic is fighting back. Someday the Dark Lord will be defeated. Uncle Luca, also one of the Divination teachers, foretold his downfall. He made this prophecy at a family dinner a few months back about it. Something about how someone with the power to bring about the Dark Lord's downfall will be born in the future and do everything in their power to make it happen." Katya took a sip of juice and continued, "Anyway, this Dark Lord is just focusing on Britain at the moment. He hasn't gotten into his head to target the rest of Europe yet, and he can't target here, since he doesn't know where the island is and has no way to get here. If he did, he would definitely be coming here. Uncle Luca told me that the Dark Lord really hates Nightwind School because they took away his invitation after meeting him."

"Was he really that horrible a person even as a kid?" asked Makena, looking shocked.

"Apparently," responded Katya. "You'd have to ask Professor Bjornsen, the third-year History of Magic teacher. She's the one that went to see him about the acceptance letter. We could ask her today, if you want. She's friends with my _Puri dej_ Magda and they meet for tea every afternoon, and you know my grandmother told us at dinner last night that we and any of our friends were welcome to join them."

After breakfast, Claire turned up, wearing a lavender coat over her crimson sweater and jeans and with scarlet ribbons woven into the braid her hair had been done in. She had a newspaper tucked under her arm. "Bad news," she said, setting the newspaper on the kitchen table and taking off her coat. "Mum and Dad were upset at breakfast today, and this is why." She gestured at the newspaper.

Katya picked it up and was immediately confronted with the headline "FURTHER ATTACKS BY DEATH EATERS!" She glanced further up and saw that it was the British wizarding paper, _The Daily Prophet_. A large number of wizarding and Muggle newspapers and magazines from around the world were delivered to the island (the Muggle ones sent by school alumni) so that school and town could be informed about world events.

Makena looked curiously at the paper and grimaced. "Katya and I were just talking about the Dark Lord when she was eating breakfast."

"Well, according to the article," Claire said, "two Muggle families were killed, and there was an attempted attack on the Hogwarts Express, since Hogwarts let out for the winter holidays the same time Nightwind did. Luckily there were a bunch of wards on the train, and several teachers and Aurors were acting as guards, so the attack was foiled. How Hogwarts could have let someone like the Dark Lord attend, I don't know. I guess he must have acted charming and nice and fooled the teachers there. Thank Merlin he couldn't fool any of the teachers here."

"Me and Makena were going to ask Professor Bjornsen later about when she went to see the Dark Lord about his acceptance letter," said Katya. "Do you want to come along? We can ask Sev, Marshall, and Yun to join us too."

"Sure. I am curious as to what he was like a kid that it convinced Professor Bjornsen he wasn't suited to attend Nightwind School. He was talented enough to get the acceptance letter in the first place, so he must have shown signs of evil to get it taken back."

After lunch, the three girls went to the bookstore and met up with Severus, Marshall, and Yun, where they explained about the plan to speak with Professor Bjornsen. The three boys were also curious and agreed to go along. At four o'clock the six went to the second floor above Magical Robes, where Katya's grandparents lived. Mrs. Mirga poured them all tea and served them biscuits in the shape of stars, candy canes, snowflakes, bells, and Christmas trees, and slices of marzipan cake.

After awhile, Claire brought up the article from the _Daily Prophet_. Mrs. Mirga frowned and said, "I don't think it is something we should really talk about. You're only first-years, and at any rate, this doesn't really affect you as you're not in Britain."

"But it affects our friends who are from Britain, _puri dej_!" protested Katya. "Which includes Sev here. Just because he now lives in Windmere doesn't mean that it no longer affects him, since his mother still has to return to Diagon Alley every day to her job at an apothecary."

"And what we really wanted to know was when you went to see the Dark Lord as a kid about his acceptance letter, Professor Bjornsen," Yun said.

Professor Bjornsen, a woman in her mid-sixties with dark blonde hair with streaks of silver and pale blue eyes, sighed deeply. "His name is Tom Riddle. He took on the name 'Lord Voldemort' when he became the Dark Lord. I had my suspicions that he wasn't suited for Nightwind School before even meeting him. You see, he was growing up at an orphanage, and I spoke with the matron, Mrs. Cole, first. She was rather hesitant about telling me about Tom at first, but when I told her that another school was interested in him as well and would definitely take him if Nightwind didn't, she opened up. Apparently he scared the other children at the orphanage. Then when I met him, he at first thought Mrs. Cole had wanted me to have a look at him and that I was from an asylum. After I had explained that I wasn't and that I was offering him an invitation to a school of magic, he became rather excited. I asked him what magic he had done before and what he told me confirmed what the impression I had gotten of him from Mrs. Cole. When I informed him that such behavior was not tolerated at Nightwind School, he suddenly became polite and apologized, saying that he would not do so again. However, this struck me as a mask, and I had to rescind the acceptance letter. He clearly was angry about it, even though he did his best to hide it, though I told him that Hogwarts would accept him and that a teacher from there would be along in a few days to arrange for it."

Makena looked shocked. "So Tom Riddle was really horrible even as a kid. I would have thought that he became evil when he got older."

"Well, I doubt he was as evil then as he is now, but he certainly was a very unpleasant child and didn't show any signs of possibly being redeemed. If he had attended Nightwind School, he probably would have continued putting on the mask of being polite and well-behaved. It wouldn't have achieved anything, and eventually he would have been expelled. Tom had already been using his magic against the other children at the orphanage, for the purposes of scaring and controlling them. Mrs. Cole told me of one incident where during a summer outing to the seaside, two of the children were never the same afterwards, and all they ever got out of them was that they and Tom had gone into a cave. Tom said that they had only been exploring, but something must have happened if the other two refused to ever speak of it."

Yun and Marshall exchanged looks. "The meeting with you must have warned him how to behave, Professor Bjornsen," said the former. "When whatever teacher showed up from Hogwarts, Riddle must have acted well-behaved towards him or her. He probably even lied and said that he turned down attending Nightwind School instead of having the the acceptance taken back to avoid any hints of his true nature."

"That is likely," agreed Professor Bjornsen. "Now, how far along are you all in your History of Magic class?"

Marshall blinked at this change in subject, but replied, "We just finished with the magical history of Africa up to the 1800's and will be starting Asian magical history when the holidays are over, Professor. Why aren't we continuing with Africa?"

"That's because you're at a point when African history intersects with European history. There was the whole colonization period going on in Africa and Asia. You'll learn about in third-year when I cover European, African, Asian, and Australian magical history of the 1800's.

"So what magical history will we be learning in second-year, Professor Bjornsen?" asked Severus.

"The curriculum will consist of the magical history of the Americas and Europe up to the 1800's, and of Australia and New Zealand until they were settled by Great Britain as penal colonies." In response to their puzzled looks, Professor Bjornsen added, "That's a colony settled by prisoners. At the time, people could be sent to prison for owing money and not being able to pay the debt or debts or just stealing a loaf of bread to feed their family. Prisons became overcrowded, and Britain solved this by sending the prisoners to Australia and New Zealand to start a new life there."

"What about fourth-year History of Magic?" Katya asked.

"That will cover history from 1900 to the present day," replied Professor Bjornsen. "Fifth-year is all review in preparation for Basic Level exams. If you choose to continue with History of Magic after fifth-year, then you'll get a more in-depth look of the magical history of your native continent. Or you may learn of your ancestors' native continent or choose one if you live in Windmere, your family were immigrants, or have mixed parentage. For example, Claire could choose Asian history since her mother was from China, or she could choose European history since the Nightwinds were from there."

The preteens nodded and then finished their tea and biscuits in silence as Mrs. Mirga and Professor Bjornsen began talking of other matters. When the six were done, they thanked the two adults for the tea and information and went down to Katya's room. "Does Hogwarts not really care that a future dark lord can attend?" asked Makena.

Yun, who was allowed to treat the family bookstore like a library as long as he didn't damage the books in any way and so had read _Hogwarts, a History_, answered, "It's not so much that Hogwarts doesn't care as it's more interested in simply educating witches and wizards. And it's divided up into four houses, which are named after the four founders. Gryffindors are known to be brave and courageous, Ravenclaws are smart and wise, Hufflepuffs are loyal and hard-working, and Slytherins are cunning and ambitious. The only problem is that Salazar Slytherin got into an argument with the other Founders over Muggleborns attending. I've read that he didn't want them to attend at all while the other Founders did, and other reports say that he wanted them to be taught about the wizarding world first before starting magical education, but the others didn't see the need."

"Is that why Nightwind School has a Wizarding Culture class for students brought up in the Muggle world?" asked Severus.

Claire nodded. "My many times great-grandparents didn't want the Muggleborn students to be ignorant about the wizarding world. And they and their friends agreed that those from the wizarding world shouldn't be completely ignorant about Muggles either, so they set up a Muggle Culture class too."

"So what happened after Salazar Slytherin got into the argument with the other Founders?" asked Makena.

"He left the school, and after that, Slytherin House has had a bad reputation," Severus said. "They traditionally take pureblood students, mainly ones that believe purebloods are superior to Muggleborns. Some halfbloods also end up there, but I've never heard of any Muggleborns in Slytherin. I've heard that Riddle and most, if not all, of his Death Eaters were in that house. My mother's family, the Princes, were mostly in Slytherin, though they weren't the evil sort. They did think wizards as being better than Muggles, but they didn't look down on Muggleborns and halfbloods. My grandparents did disapprove of my mother's marriage, but they eventually accepted it, I guess, since when they died last year ago, they left me some money in their will to pay for my schooling and give me a start in life after graduation, with the condition that only I could touch it."

"That was nice of them," Marshall remarked.

Severus simply shrugged and said, "Do any of you know why Nightwind School doesn't have houses like Hogwarts does?" That particular subject hadn't been mentioned in _A History of Nightwind of Magic_, which was why he asked.

"Many times Great-Grandpa Geoffrey thought like his house Founder, Helga Hufflepuff, in that he just wanted to teach students and treat them all the same," Claire answered. "He didn't see the need of dividing students up based on aspects of their personality or nature when he and Great-Grandma Marie were more interested in instilling unity and cooperation. Basically, they and their friends took the faults they found with Hogwarts and Beauxbatons and corrected them when founding Nightwind School. Beauxbatons is the school of magic in France, Makena."

The idea that dividing a school up into houses was something that Geoffrey Nightwind considered a fault hadn't occurred to Severus, though fixing what the Nightwinds and their friends thought were wrong with other magic schools had been mentioned in the book. Meanwhile, Makena asked, "Are any descendants of the Nightwinds' friends living in Windmere or are teachers now?"

Claire nodded. "There's my distant cousin, Professor Yvonne Lavelle, the fourth-year Herbology teacher. She's descended from Great-Grandma Marie's brother, who was the first Ancient Runes teacher. There's also Professor Josef Kaminski, the second-year Charms teacher, who is descended from the daughter of Professors Elizabeth and Robert Fawley, the first Defense and Herbology teachers. And Mrs. Prewett, who runs the Windmere Inn with her husband, is descended from Professors Marius and Jeanne Selwyn, the first Potions and Arithmancy teachers."

Yun glanced down at his watch and made a face. "Marshall and I have to go. It's after five, and I told Ma that I'd help her with dinner tonight." He and Marshall donned their coats, bid the others good-bye, and left. Severus left as well, for he'd promised his mother that he'd start dinner so she wouldn't have that much to do when she got home from work, and Claire decided that she might as well go home and help her mother with dinner too.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: A Happy Easter to all my readers that celebrate it! And RIP to Richard Griffiths, who did an excellent job portraying Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films. You were a great actor and we shall miss you.

Severus woke up early on Christmas day, which happened to fall on a Saturday that year. Since he couldn't fall back asleep again and it was too early to really get up, he picked up _The Hobbit_, the current book that the Book Club was reading. He read for the next two hours, until half past seven, when he could no longer contain his excitement and stay in his room. He threw on his dressing gown over his pajamas, went to the bathroom and quickly brished his teeth, and then woke up his mother. Eileen yawned and got up, smiling at her son. "Happy Christmas, Sev." She donned a dressing gown over her nightgown and then the two went into the living room to open presents.

Severus opened the two presents from his mother first, and they turned out to be a brand new potions kit and a set of new clothes. "Thanks, Mum!" he exclaimed, getting up and hugging her tightly. He then opened Lily's present, which was a box of chocolates and a crystal potions stirrer. He then unwrapped the identical package that Claire had given everyone in the Phoenix Club, which turned out to be a thin journal with emerald green covers and his name engraved on the cover. A note fell out the journal and he read it to discover that Claire had gotten the Phoenix Club members, including herself, identical journals, except for the color, and had her parents enchant them so that they were all connected.

Severus flipped through the journal and saw that Claire had written down the name of a different person in the club in her neat calligraphy at the top of each right-hand page, except for the last page, which had "Phoenix Club" written at the top. He looked at the note again, which further explained that the journals were to be used as a method of communication between the group members when they were apart. For example, if he wanted to tell Amina something, all he had to do was write it down on the page labeled as hers. The writing would then disappear and appear in her journal, which would glow silver to notify her that she had a message. Once she read it, the writing would disappear. If he had something to tell the group as a whole, he simply had to write it down in the page labeled "Phoenix Club" and it would appear in all the journals, which would glow gold.

"Wow, Claire," murmured Severus, impressed by the gift. It would certainly make it easier and faster to correspond with each other during the holidays, since, for example, if Marshall, who lived in the United States, sent a letter to Kurt, who lived in Germany, the owl would take several days to reach him.

Severus then opened his final two gifts, which were from the Phoenix Club. One contained a small box of various sweets, and the other was a quill pen and a thick blank book with moss green covers, clearly meant for him to use as a commonplace book. The accompanying note, which was written by Fiona, said jokingly, "And now you no longer have to scribble down potions notes and alterations in the margins of your textbooks, Sev, since you can just use the commonplace book we gave you."

He grinned at that and then fetched a bottle of ink. Using the new quill, he inscribed "Property of Severus Prince" inside the front cover of the book, and then flipped to the Phoenix Club page of the journal and wrote down his thanks for the presents. He then flipped over to the page corresponding to Lily and thanked her for her present to him. He then gathered up the scattered pieces of wrapping paper and threw them out, while his mother started breakfast. When he was done, it didn't surprise him to find that all his friends currently in Windmere had written in their journals also, thanking the Club for their gifts and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Similar thanks followed from Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Fiona, Nicole, and Kurt.

After breakfast, the remainder of the group had written as well. Severus wrote back and then helped his mother make an apple pie, her contribution to the yearly Christmas dinner that was held in the Windmere Inn. It seemed that all the residents of Windmere (except the goblins at the bank, who preferred to keep to themselves) always gathered together for Christmas dinner, even the ones that technically didn't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons. The dinner was a potluck, with each person or household contributing some dish, and the family that ran the inn always contributed the Christmas turkeys and geese.

At noon, Severus and Eileen walked over to the Windmere Inn. Ms. Prince set the pie on the dessert table and went to help with the rest of the setting up. Claire spotted Severus and went over to him. "Merry Christmas, Sev! What did you and your mother bring?"

"An apple pie," he responded. "And Merry Christmas to you too, Claire. What about your family?"

"Mom and Dad made spring rolls, and Chris and I made thumbprint cookies. Those are cookies that have an indentation in the center that's made with your thumb and filled with jam or jelly. I used strawberry jam and Chris used grape jelly."

"How is your brother?" asked Severus.

"Other than the fact that he still wishes he was attending Nightwind School instead of primary school, he's fine." Claire rolled her eyes and continued, "Did I ever tell you that he wished we were twins right after I got my acceptance letter? He said that we might as well be, since our names start with the same letter. Then he asked if an exception could be made for him, but Dad told him that just because we were descended from the founders of the school didn't mean that the rule stating that students had to be at least eleven in order to attend could be bent just for him. And Dad's not the Headmaster, so he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it anyway."

Severus nodded, recalling reading that the Nightwinds had written in their will that there always had to be at least one of their descendants as a staff member of the school, but they didn't really want them to become the Head or Deputy Head. The last thing they had wanted was an entire line of Nightwinds or of their blood in charge of the school, knowing that inevitably there would be descendants who would be good at teaching but horrible at running a school. He opened his mouth to reply, but saw Marshall, Yun, his older sister, and their parents walk in just then. Mr. and Mrs. Huang were each carrying a covered soup tureen, Mei-Hua was carrying a platter of fish, and Yun and Marshall carried between them a basket that contained pieces of what looked to be some kind of Chinese pastry or cake. "Hey, Yun and Marshall just arrived."

The two set down their basket at the dessert table and having spotted Claire and Severus, made a beeline for them. "Merry Christmas, guys!" said Yun. "Ma brought a wonton soup and Ba brought a hot and sour soup. Mei-Hua has steamed fish, and Marshall and I have _niangao_. That's a kind of Chinese cake made from glutinous rice and traditionally eaten at New Year's, though you can eat at any time if you want. What about you guys?"

"Mum and I brought an apple pie, and Claire says that her family brought spring rolls and thumbprint cookies."

"Ooh, your mom's spring rolls are great, Claire!" exclaimed Marshall. "Even Mrs. Huang says that they're better than hers."

Claire smiled and then gestured over to the cloakroom located to one side of the common dining area. "You might want to hang up your coats, guys."

The three boys went to do so, and when they returned, Katya and Makena had arrived. Katya's parents had brought a plum pudding, while both sets of grandparents had brought four baskets of rolls.

At one o'clock, Mr. and Mrs. Prewett, a couple in their fifties, started carving the turkeys and geese and people started lining up for food. Severus filled a plate with some turkey, a piece of fish, a spring roll, a serving of mixed vegetables, some mashed potatoes and gravy, a small serving of green bean casserole, and a roll. He also got a small bowl of wonton soup and a bottle of butterbeer from the drinks table. He then went to one of the three private dining rooms, which had been set up as the eating area for those between the ages of seven and twelve. (Of the other two private rooms, one was for those thirteen and over, and the other was for those under seven, with some of the parents also there to keep an eye on things.) He found a seat between Marshall and Claire's brother Chris, grabbed a napkin and some utensils from the bins by the door, and started on the meal.

Severus got seconds, and for dessert, had a slice of his mother's apple pie, two thumbprint cookie with strawberry jam, some plum pudding, and a small piece of _niangao_. Dinner ended with wizard crackers, and Severus got a flowered hat, a chess set, some sweets, and a bag of prank items in the crackers he pulled. Since he didn't particularly care for prank items, not being the pranking sort, he traded them to Chris for a pack of Exploding Snap cards and Chocolate Frog, and gave the flowered hat to Claire, who in turn gave him a cardboard and tinsel crown.

After the meal, there were games and a snowball fight, and for a late tea everyone picked over the leftovers or made sandwiches out of the leftover turkeys and geese. When that ended, Mr. and Mrs. Prewett started cleaning up with the aid of their two house-elves plus three more lent by the school, and the other adults sorted out their dishes to take home. Severus put on his coat, bid his friends good-bye, and carrying the empty pie tin, followed his mother home to their flat.


	11. Chapter 11

On Friday, the seventh of January, all the students returned to school and got settled back in. Severus told his friends that his mother's divorce had gone through and that he and his mother had changed their last name to her maiden name, Prince. "So you're a Prince now, Sev?" asked Sirius with a grin. "Do we have to bow to you and call you 'Your Highness'?"

Knowing that Sirius was only joking, Severus replied, "The others do. You have to kiss my feet and call me 'my master and Imperial Highness'."

In reply, Sirius threw a sofa cushion at him and retorted, "Oh, very funny. Like I'd ever kiss somebody's feet and call them master."

Dylan, who was also smiling, said, "A more accurate description would be the 'halfblood Prince', since you happen to be a halfblood, Sev."

"Good point," said Severus, thinking that it sounded interesting. "That would be a nice nickname to have. But I think I'll stick to you all calling me 'Severus' or 'Sev' for now." However, he did get out his commonplace book later, crossed out his name where he had written 'Property of Severus Prince' and over it wrote 'Half-Blood Prince', only half-joking when he wrote it.

The following day was a Windmere visit, and Lily and Remus, Severus's two closest friends in the Phoenix Club, kept him distracted for an hour while the rest of the group slipped off to get the presents for his birthday, which was the next day.

The next day, the Phoenix Club gathered in one of the rec rooms in the boys' dormitory after lunch. Claire, Yun, and Katya had gone down to the kitchens and gotten a sheet cake, a plate of cookies, and some paper plates and utensils from the house-elves there. Kurt set the two candles in the shape of the numbers one and two (which had been bought for Sirius's birthday and used again for Nicole's) in the cake, and Yun's sister popped in for a minute to light the candles magically and wish Severus a happy birthday.

After the singing the 'Happy Birthday' song, Severus made a wish and blew out the candles. He then cut the cake and when everyone was done eating, opened his presents. He got a book on Defense, his best subject besides Potions, a framed watercolor painting of him and Lily ice skating on the pond, and a box of sweets. "Thank you guys," he said, smiling at his friends. "And the painting is really good, Nicole."

The next day classes resumed. In History of Magic, the first-years began learning about Asian magical history, starting with China. Apparently the Chinese religion of Taoism had some basis in magic. In fact, the founder, Laozi (a title that translated as Old Master), had been a wizard. Also, there had been witches and wizards in the Imperial Court, though it wasn't common knowledge. Of course, thanks to stories like _Journey to the West_, the Chinese weren't unfamiliar with magic and took no issue with it as long as it was being used for good and not evil.

The Wizard and Muggle Culture classes ended and was replaced with the Customs of Magical Beings class. Severus, Claire, Yun, Katya, and Sophie and Stefan Rybar no longer had a study period because of this. The very first lesson was taught by a goblin named Goldtooth, who taught the students (except for the ones that already knew it) the standard greeting and good-bye in Gobbledegook and gave a general overview of some of the Goblin Nation's customs. He also taught the next lesson, and then the class moved on to centaur culture, taught by an older centaur named Eldran.

On Sunday, 30 January was Lily's twelfth birthday. There was a cake and the Phoenix Club presented her with a book on Charms, her favorite and best subject, a watercolor painting of her and Severus brewing a potion together, and some sweets. The next birthdays after that were Marshall's and Yun's, who both happened to have been born on the same day, February 10th. Claire had once joked at their joint seventh birthday party that they might as well have been twins, since they were born on the same day and were best friends. The group gave Yun a book of Chinese stories and myths translated into English (since he couldn't read Chinese as well as he could speak it) and sweets and Marshall a pair of padded gloves (since he played Quodpot, an American variant of Quidditch that was like a cross between Hot Potato and Keep Away) and sweets. They also got identical pictures that Claire had painted, of the two of them flying and Marshall tossing the Quod (the exploding ball used in Quodpot) to Yun.

On February 14th was Valentine's Day and the Phoenix Club exchanged platonic valentine cards that they had made. The day after that was the Lunar New Year's. The Asian students (except the Indian ones, since they had a different calender) were excused from classes. Yun and Yuki wore new outfits that their parents had sent them. Yun also received a red envelope containing five Galleons. Since the Lunar New Year had been the subject of the last World Culture class, the Phoenix Club wished Yun and Yuki a happy New Year's and all wore something red, since it was a lucky color in Asian culture. Dinner that evening was composed of mainly Asian dishes traditionally eaten during the New Year festivities.

That Saturday, at breakfast time, Sirius got a letter when the mail arrived. Uncle Alphard sent him a letter once a month, and cousin Andromeda or her husband Ted Tonks would write every couple of weeks, so getting mail normally didn't surprise him. What did surprise him was that it was another letter from Uncle Alphard, who had sent him the monthly letter a week ago, and it was thicker than normal. Sirius opened it to have three pieces of parchment fall out, instead of the usual one or two. He picked up the first sheet and saw that it was a short note from Uncle Alphard saying that he was passing on a letter from Sirius's brother, Regulus, of all people.

Sirius choked on his orange juice and hastily set down the cup. He hadn't had any contact with Regulus since breakfast of the day he'd gotten his acceptance to Nightwind School. In fact, he hadn't thought about his brother much at all, since the two hadn't been getting along ever since Andromeda's elopement, as Regulus had sided with their parents on the matter and thereby became the favored son. Wondering why his brother would suddenly be writing to him now, Sirius picked up the other two pieces of parchment and began reading.

"_Dear Sirius,_

_I know we haven't been close since Andri married a Muggleborn and was disowned for it. I'm sorry about that, but I was never the rebel like you were. I wanted to seek our parents' approval, but you didn't care about getting it. After you got disowned for attending Nightwind School, I started thinking, however. And then I found out that Cissy got disowned too for returning to Nightwind School instead of going to Hogwarts. Plus Uncle Alphard got into a huge fight with Mother and Father, and then Uncle Cygnus and Aunt Druella, over the whole thing. Since he supported you and Cissy, Mother blasted his name off the family tapestry like she did with you, Andri, and Cissy. _

_I don't know exactly what to do, but I do know that I don't like what's going on at home now. Mother and Father go on about how I'm so perfect and that I'm their only son. They don't even talk about you, except to say bad things about you when they think I can't hear them. You may have been a little bad since you were a rebel, Sirius, but not as horrible as they say you were. I had fun with you and you are still my brother, no matter what._

_I've been secretly writing to Uncle Alphard and he says that you and Cissy are doing well at Nightwind School. He's also told me about the school and it sounds better than Hogwarts. A part of me wants to attend, but I know Mother and Father will be angry at me if I do. They'd probably disown me, and I'm not sure if I can handle that. I can rebel to secretly write to you and Uncle Alphard, but I don't know if I can go as far as you and Cissy did. Do you think I should? Uncle Alphard says that I'd likely get the acceptance letter this year, since I'm not a horrible person like Bella, and I am turning eleven in June._

_Please write back with advice. Send the letter to Uncle Alphard and he'll forward it to me. I hope you forgive me for not being a good brother to you lately. Just know that even if I go to Hogwarts, you will never stop being my brother. I'm going to write to Cissy now and ask for her advice too. I love you, Sirius._

_Your brother,_

_Regulus._"

Sirius wiped his eyes as he finished reading the letter and folded it up. "What's the matter, Sirius?" asked Dylan, a look of concern on his face.

"Reg wrote to me. My brother Regulus," Sirius clarified. "We haven't been close since my cousin Andromeda got disowned from the family for marrying a Muggleborn and Reg sided with my ex-parents on the issue. He wrote a letter apologizing for it and said that my being disowned got him thinking. He still wants to be my brother, wants to attend Nightwind School but isn't sure if he can handle being disowned like I did, and would like my advice."

"If I were your brother, I'd attend Nightwind School and who cares how the parents react to it," said Dylan. "Your brother has you, two cousins, and an uncle that's willing to support and help him. If he stays at home and goes to Hogwarts, what's to say that he won't change in order to be the son that your ex-parents want? You said before that Regulus sought out favor and approval from his parents."

Just then, Narcissa got up from the fifth-year table and walked over to Sirius, a letter in her hand. "Sirius, did you get a letter from Regulus? Because he's written to me for advice about breaking from the family and coming here and said that he'd written to you as well."

Sirius nodded, holding up his letter for proof. "He apologized for our split and said that he still wants to be my brother. And he also asked for advice."

"I'd say that he should attend Nightwind," said Narcissa. "It'd be good for him, and if Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion disown him, it's not the end of the world. Uncle Alphard will pay for his school supplies and stuff, and you and I will be here to help him. If Reg doesn't, he could be brought back to the rest of the family's way of thinking, since he has shown before that he wants to be a good son and have the family's approval."

Sirius sighed deeply. "He also wanted my approval, before our big fight. Maybe I should have tried harder to patch things up with him earlier. All right, I'll write to Reg and tell him that I want him here at Nightwind School."

"I'll do the same," said Narcissa. "If you need help with the letter to make it encouraging and whatnot just ask me."

The following day, Sirius and Narcissa sent out the letters they had written with the latter's owl to Uncle Alphard, who then secretly passed it on the Regulus. A week later, they received a letter in reply, saying that the family house-elf, Kreacher, had found the letters before Regulus could burn them in the fireplace. Kreacher had reported it to the parents, who had thrown a fit. Orion Black had actually spanked his son for it before confining Regulus to his room. The only effect the punishment had was convince him that he had lost his parents' favor and that he definitely wanted to attend Nightwind School now, if he was accepted that is. He told his cousins not to write back, since his parents were now intercepting all his mail.

At that, Narcissa left the table and marched up to Headmistress Nakamura over at the staff table. "Headmistress Nakamura, I have a question. Is my cousin Regulus Black accepted to Nightwind School this year? He expressed a desire to attend, since his brother Sirius and I are students here, and he would like to get away from his parents, who he feels are bad influences on him."

"I will have to consult the student list for the upcoming school year, Miss Black," said Headmistress Nakamura, looking surprised. "But he most likely is, since we normally accept relatives of current or past students if they have magical ability and are good at heart. Since your aunt and uncle have a prejudice against Nightwind School, I suppose Regulus Black will have to live in Windmere during the holidays like his brother is doing?"

Narcissa nodded and the headmistress continued, "Hmm, since your cousin wants to attend Nightwind School and escape his parents' influence on him, even if he currently isn't on the acceptance list, I will personally add his name to it. Will that do, Miss Black? Also, how worried are you about him?"

"Very," Narcissa replied. "Uncle Orion spanked him for secretly corresponding with Sirius and me, and implied that he would punish Regulus even more if he continued this kind of rebellion. Since his outgoing mail isn't being monitored, he was able to secretly send a return letter, but we can't write back."

Headmistress Nakamura frowned. "Something needs to be done about it. We may have to give Regulus his acceptance letter early instead of at the end of June and arrange for him to move here. I believe I shall need to send several teachers, so your aunt and uncle can't stop Regulus. I will call a staff meeting after breakfast and discuss the arrangements. You may inform your cousin, Sirius, about this, Miss Black."

"Thank you, Headmistress Nakamura," said Narcissa gratefully. She turned and went back to Sirius, telling him about the conversation.

The following Saturday, Headmistress Nakamura, Deputy Headmaster Ihejirika, Professor Nakamura, and all the Defense Against Dark Arts teachers left the school and returned an hour later with Regulus and Alphard Black. Sirius and Narcissa had been told to wait in the Entrance Hall and as soon as Regulus spotted them, he ran over to and hugged his brother tightly. "I've missed you, Siri," Regulus said.

Sirius smiled. "You haven't called me 'Siri' since you were nine. I've missed you too, Reg."

Regulus returned the smile and then hugged Narcissa, who ruffled his hair and patted him on his back. "It's great to see you, Reg. So what happened?"

"I was in the drawing room being lectured by Mother about proper behavior when Kreacher said that we had company at the door. When Headmistress Nakamura said that they were from Nightwind School, Mother tried to throw them out. Professor, I think it was Bruneau, had to magically silence her and bind her to her chair so she could hear them out. I insisted on attending Nightwind School, so when Professor Bruneau undid the spells, Mother threw a huge fit and declared that I was no longer any son of hers, saying that I was turning out just as bad as you. Father came in to see what was going on and Professor Nakamura had to temporarily Stun him so that he couldn't Curse any of them or try to stop me. The rest of the teachers helped me magically pack up my things and took me to Uncle Alphard, while Professor Nakamura un-Stunned Father and Apparated away."

Uncle Alphard walked over to them. "Sirius, you're no longer going to be staying with the Llewellyns. We don't want to split you and Regulus up now that you're back together, and the Llewellyns just don't have the room to take in both of you. However, your friend Severus's mother has volunteered to take both of you in, since she's got a spare room."

Sirius perked up at this, for outside of James, he was closest to Severus of all the members in the Phoenix Club, since the other boy understood what it was like to have a bad home situation, though his had been much worse than Sirius's had ever been. "Since Ms. Prince has to work," continued Uncle Alphard, "Regulus will attend the primary school during the day. After school he'll be at the rec center with the other kids until Ms. Prince gets off work."

Headmistress Nakamura interjected, "Sirius and Narcissa Black, you have my permission to help Regulus get settled into his new home and show him around Windmere today. You can also invite Severus Snape, I mean Prince, to go with you, and get acquainted with his new foster brother."

"Thanks, Headmistress!" exclaimed Sirius. "I'll go get Sev now and tell the rest of the Phoenix Club what's going on."

Ten minutes later, after hurriedly explaining to the Phoenix Club what had happened, he and Severus returned to the Entrance Hall. The two of them, plus Regulus, Narcissa, and Uncle Alphard, who was carrying Regulus's trunk of belongings, set off for Windmere. Sirius's belongings over at the Llewellyns' flat had already been brought over to the Princes' flat. Since it wouldn't be fair to have one of the three boys have a room to himself while the other two had to share, the wall between Severus's room and the spare room had been removed and the two rooms combined to one big one. A pair of bunk beds, a dresser, a double desk, and a bookcase had been added.

Sirius and Narcissa helped Regulus unpack and put his things away, while Severus made room for the other belongings and got to know the younger boy better. After that, Ms. Prince, who had taken the day off work, served lunch. Uncle Alphard had to leave after the meal, but before he did, gave his nephews and niece some spending money and pressed upon Ms. Prince a bag of Galleons for expenses despite her objections that it wasn't necessary. Since he wouldn't take the money back, Ms. Prince decided in the end to open an account for Regulus at the bank and deposit the money there. She did so as part of the first stop on the tour of Windmere. When the tour ended, Sirius, Narcissa, and Severus returned to school, while Ms. Prince took Regulus to the rec center so he could meet the other children his age that lived in the town.


	12. Chapter 12

The snow melted and Quidditch practices resumed. James had to attend the Ruby team's practices that were scheduled for three times a week, while Sirius, as a reserve, only had to attend one a week. Meanwhile, Regulus settled well to life at Windmere and soon became friends with Claire's brother Chris, Fiona's sister, Bridget (who was in his class at primary school), and Katya's cousin Petra Mirga, who was half Rom and half Native American, as her mother was Professor Trueblood, the Muggle Culture teacher.

On Friday, March 10th was Remus's birthday. He received a book on Native American mythology, as Native American culture (taught by Professor Trueblood) had been the subject of the last World Culture class (and the one today) and he had wanted to learn more about it, and a box of chocolate, his favorite sweet. Nicole painted a picture of him and his two closest friends Severus and Makena building a snowman as an additional gift. The next birthday was Claire's, on March 23rd, and she got a pair of Chaser gloves, a roll of film for her camera, some sweets, and a painting of her, James, and Fiona having a snowball fight. The last birthday in March was James's, on the 27th. He got the book _Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland_, a painting of him, Sirius, Claire, and Fiona flying on their brooms, and sweets.

James's birthday happened to coincide with the start of spring break, two weeks without classes that encompassed Easter and the entirety of Passover. Unlike the Christmas holidays and the summer vacation, nobody went home however, except for the students that lived in Windmere, and even then they were only allowed to visit their families and couldn't spend the night. Students were allowed to visit the town after breakfast, as long as they returned to school by dinnertime. It would have been a good time to relax, except the teachers had given out plenty of homework, and the fifth and seventh year students had to revise for the Basic and Advanced Level exams.

Sirius, James, and Nicole had never been the studious sort, but as the rest of the Phoenix Club were doing their homework and revising so that it could all be done in the first week and leave the second week free for fun, they joined their friends in the study room and worked as well. The group finished all their work by April 1st, which was the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Happy that all the work was out of the way, they proceeded to relax and have fun.

On April 4th was Kurt's birthday. As it was during Passover, the Phoenix Club asked the kitchen house-elves to make a birthday cake out of matzo meal, since he could only have baked goods that were unleavened. Kurt received a potions kit, a painting of him and Amina (his best friend in the group) playing chess, and a box of toffee, his favorite sweet.

The following Saturday was the first Quidditch match of the spring term, between the Emerald and Ruby teams. James did quite well, scoring six of the fifteen goals the Ruby team made and assisting with three more. The Ruby team won the match, three hundred points to one hundred sixty. The Saturday after that was the match between the Diamond and Emerald teams. The Diamond team won after an hour long match, three hundred ten points to one hundred twenty.

On April 17th was Amina's birthday. The Phoenix Club gave her a book of poetry, a painting of her, Kurt, and Yuki tending plants in the greenhouse, and a box of all her favorite sweets. Two days after that was Yuki's birthday, and she received a book on Herbology, her favorite subject, a painting of her, Amina, and Kurt planting flowers, and a box of Japanese sweets.

That weekend was the school production of _A Midsummer's Night Dream_. There was the opening show on Friday night, and a matinee performance on Saturday afternoon, after the Quidditch match between the Ruby and Sapphire teams. (The Ruby team won, two hundred sixty points to one hundred seventy.) Per the school custom, the understudies for the major and main supporting roles performed at the matinee, and though the Phoenix Club had been to opening night, they went to the matinee as well, purely to see Sirius's performance as Puck.

Sirius portrayed an excellent and mischievous Puck, as good as the third year, Brian McDowell, that had played him the night before. The audience laughed at the antics he got up to, usually on the behalf of Queen Titania and King Oberon.

The following Friday, there was a concert in evening, with the regular Choir, the Show Choir, and the school band performing. They did a mix of Muggle and wizarding music, with three songs that were in French, Spanish, and Italian, sung by those students that spoke the languages.

The first Saturday in May was the final Quidditch match of the year, to determine who would win the school Quidditch Cup. As the Ruby and Diamond teams had the most points, they were the ones playing against each other. While residents of Windmere (mostly the children and their parents or the staff from the rec center) had attended matches before, since this was the final one, almost everyone that lived in the town had come to this one. The Phoenix Club naturally rooted for the Ruby team as James was a member, and the rest of the school was divided in their support. Many based their choice on which team to support on if a friend or family was part of the team or not, while others just randomly picked. In the case of Adisa, the announcer, he simply wore both red and white rosettes and cheered on both teams, as the captains of both were his friends.

The match was a close one, as both Keepers were in top form and let very few goals through. After half an hour, the Ruby team had scored only four times, one of those by James, while the Diamond team had only scored three times. After another thirty minutes, the Ruby team managed to score twice more and the Diamond team scored thrice more. It was clear from the way things were going that only the capture of the Snitch would determine which team won, but both Seekers were having a little difficulty doing so. Early on into the game, Diamond Seeker Dimitri had spotted the Snitch, but Ruby Seeker Cecily swooped in and blocked him. He had to hurriedly stop himself from plowing into her, and then a Bludger came whizzing in their direction, causing them to scatter to avoid getting hit. In the confusion, the Snitch moved out of view, and hadn't been spotted again.

After another hour, both teams were each down a Chaser (not James, to the relief of his friends, or the Ruby Captain, Francesca), as Bludgers had knocked them off their brooms and they were currently in the Infirmary getting their injuries tended to. The Ruby team managed to pull ahead in points, but it was only by two goals, or twenty points. Both captains were getting extremely frustrated, and during a short time out, shouted at their Seekers to hurry up and catch the Snitch. Finally, after about another twenty minutes, Cecily spotted the Snitch and went streaking after it. Dimitri, who was busy dodging a Bludger, didn't notice this for several seconds, and when he did, he was on the opposite side of the pitch. By the time he caught up to her, Cecily had caught the Snitch, ending the match and winning the Quidditch Cup for the Ruby team, three hundred thirty points to one hundred fifty.

The stands erupted in cheers and applause, as a jubilant Ruby team landed and walked up to the section where the teachers were sitting. Petra joined them, as she had only suffered a sprained ankle when she got knocked off her broom and Father Vasquez, as the Mediwizard on duty, had mended it in a thrice. A beaming Headmistress Nakamura presented Francesca with the Quidditch Cup and the Ruby team plaque that listed all the times they had won the Cup, which now had the 1971 to 1972 school year added to it.

Per tradition, James was given the plaque to hold, as he was the most junior member of the team, and Francesca raised the Quidditch Cup high into the air to even more cheers and applause. She then shook hands with her friend and the Diamond Captain (and Beater), Kaito, and thanked him for a good match, while he in turn congratulated her on the win. After awhile, things settled down enough for the teams to go shower and change, while half the teachers and some of the older students got the celebratory party set up.

The euphoria over the Quidditch final lasted for several days, but the students couldn't relax. Review for the final exams in June started, with the teachers going over everything they had taught previously. The only exceptions were the World Culture and Customs of Magical Beings classes, as they didn't have any tests. The older students, particularly the fifth and seventh year students, were rather stressed out over their exams, and the younger students stayed out of their way.

Lily became rather panicky, worried about failing her exams, which would mean that she would have to repeat first year, unless she did so poorly that she got expelled. "Calm down, Lily," said Severus. "You'll do well, since you're one of the top five students in our year."

"And you're bound to ace the Charms and Potions exams at the very least," added Kurt. "You're the best in Charms, and you and Sev are the top students in Potions."

"And you're near the head of all our other classes," added Nicole. "So please stop panicking, Lily, or we'll send you to the Infirmary for a Calming Draught."

Lily managed to stop panicking, but this didn't stop her from drawing up a revision timetable and insisting that the rest of the Phoenix Club do the same, or at least follow her schedule, since all extracurricular meetings had been put on hold. "That is enough," said Claire firmly, finally losing patience. "None of us are so poor of a witch or wizard that we'd fail the exams. Even in the subjects that any of us happen to not be strong in, we'd still score at least an Average, which means getting at least seventy percent. Lily, we are all going to study, but please let us do it our own way."

"I'm sorry," said Lily, realizing that she was coming on too strong. "I didn't realize that I was being bossy about revising." The others accepted the apology.

On May 23rd was Makena's birthday, and she was given a silky scarf in a floral design, nail polish that flashed different colors, and sweets. Nicole also painted a picture of Makena, Remus, Katya, and Marshall playing Gobstones.

The first full week of June, which began on the fifth, was the start of exams. For the first years, this meant that they had two exams a day from Monday to Wednesday, the theoretical (or written) portions in the morning and the practical portions in the afternoon. The only exception was the History of Magic exam, which was completely written, so following the Defense practical was part two of the Potions practical (since you had to brew two potions for it and there wasn't enough time to brew both of them in ninety minutes.)

On Thursday was the Astronomy exam, with the written portion in the morning and the practical in the evening at ten o'clock. Since it was so late, students were allowed to sleep in the following morning, and the one test they had that day, which was the language one, was held in the afternoon. For the Phoenix Club members that were taking Chinese, theirs was an oral exam, as Chinese was a difficult language to learn to read and write in and so they hadn't learned how to for the time being. For Claire, Marshall, and Yun, who were taking French, their test consisted of a written half that had to be done within one hour followed by the oral half.

The following week was free as the teachers graded the exams. June 13th was Katya's birthday, and they combined the celebration with early ones for Dylan and Fiona, whose birthdays were July 11th and August 7th respectively, when the group would be scattered for the summer vacation. Katya received a book about potion ingredients and a painting of her, Makena, and Remus playing Exploding Snap. Dylan and Fiona got almost identical paintings of them flying on their brooms, competing against each other to catch the Snitch, and Quidditch gloves.

On Friday the exam results were announced, except for the fifth and seventh-year students, who would receive their results in July. The Phoenix Club had done very well, and as expected, Lily had the top grade in Charms, James in Transfiguration, Remus in Defense, Severus in Potions, and Yuki in Herbology. Somewhat to Remus's surprise, he had managed to achieve an Above Average in Potions, his worst subject, since the fact that he scored perfectly in the written portion served to balance out the seventy-four percent he had gotten for the potions he brewed. The lowest grade any of them got was the seventy-eight percent that Sirius and Nicole had in Astronomy, a subject that didn't interest them all that much, and the seventy-nine that Dylan got in History of Magic, since he tended to get dates mixed up.

On Sunday was the end-of term feast, for Nightwind School was letting out for summer vacation the following day. In the afternoon, the Phoenix Club met up for their own private going away party. Claire, who had been taking pictures with her camera all throughout the school year, gave each person a photo album. "My parents helped me develop the film and make duplicates," she explained. "The first six pages have the photos I took of us, and the rest is left blank for the rest of our school years. As I take more photos and develop them, we can add them to the album." The others thanked her for the wonderful present.

The next day, after breakfast, students finished what packing hadn't been done yet, and at eleven, gathered in the Assembly Hall. The staff bid everyone to have an enjoyable summer and reminded students that they could not do any magic in front of Muggles (besides immediate family members) except in an emergency or attempt spells that they hadn't learned yet. For Muggleborn students that lived in countries like Great Britain, that normally didn't allow underage students to do magic outside of school, they were reminded to limit magic use and if the magical government had any issue, to please tell the appropriate department that they attended Nightwind School, which had different rules about it. After that, the students that didn't live in Windmere took Portkeys to their respective homes.

Yun, Katya, Severus, Sirius, Claire, and the other Windmere students gathered their trunks and set off for the town. Narcissa was staying with Yun's family, as she was friends with his sister Mei-Hua and the Huangs had invited her. Severus and Sirius dropped off their trunks in their bedroom and then went to the rec center to spend some time with Regulus, as the primary school had also let out for the summer.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: Since the Phoenix Club members are important to this story, I am going to have chapters told from the various members' point of view, not just the ones that are in the Harry Potter books. That will allow readers to find out more about them and not just have them be flat characters.

Makena stared at her parents in shock. "You want me to live at Nightwind School in the future and not come home for summer vacations?"

"Yes, Makena," Mr. Okoro said. "From what Professor Afolayan and you have told us, the environment there is much better for you. You don't have to worry about discrimination and you're getting a much better education than you would have here in South Africa, whether it be magical or non-magical, since the magic school here isn't that open to natives or coloreds, even if they still allow them to attend."

"You were lucky to get somewhat of an education in the first place," said Mrs. Okoro. "If our family hadn't been classified as 'Colored', you wouldn't have been able to go to school at all, since native women aren't allowed to under apartheid."

Makena winced, recalling that Professor Afolayan had been very relieved to find out that she had gone to school before and knew how to read and write. Otherwise she would have had to go to Nightwind School right away and be quickly taught the basics so she could keep up with the other students. "I understand your point, but I also will miss my family and I want to see you all."

Mrs. Okoro sighed. "I'm not saying that you can't visit for a few days, but we would prefer that you live at the school and nearby town. You're not subjected to prejudice there, and your father and I hate having you come back to it here, no matter how much we've missed you. You've made friends, and you told us that two of them have offered to have you stay with their families."

"Professor Afolayan had asked us if we wanted you living at the school and town when she came about the acceptance letter," added Mr. Okoro. "At the time, we said no, but after everything you told us about your time at school at dinner yesterday, we changed our minds."

Makena bit her lip, thinking over what her parents said. They certainly had a point, and she did feel more at home at Nightwind School now than in her parents' small house. "I suppose I can live at Windmere outside of school. But what about Nomusa and Tau?"

"As Nomusa can also do magic, she will join you when she gets her acceptance letter next year," replied Mrs. Okoro. "We can't do much about Tau. You know he has no magical ability, or he would have been accepted to a magic school when he turned eleven."

Having her sister also able to attend Nightwind School the following year cheered Makena up somewhat. Her parents hugged her and as the conversation was over, she went to write to the rest of the Phoenix Club in her journal.

* * *

Amina was saying the daily prayers that all practicing Muslims had to do five times a day in her room when she heard a faint chiming sound. She completed the prayer and got up. As she expected, her journal was glowing gold at her desk, which meant that one of her friends had written a message to the entire group. She quickly rolled up her prayer mat and put it away before going to her desk to read the message. She flipped to the last page and saw that Makena was the one writing.

"Poor Makena," Amina murmured as she read that the Okoros wanted Makena to live at Nightwind School and Windmere after this summer so that she wouldn't have to be subjected to further life under apartheid. The closest thing to prejudice that Amina had ever experienced in Saudi Arabia was that some Muslim men didn't see women as equals, though she was aware that for Muggle women in the country, their lives were regulated more strictly than in her own. That had more to do with clerics and people in the Muggle government interpreting the Qur'an strictly, forbidding things if it didn't address the subject. Among witches and wizards, society was more liberal, though when out among Muggles, they had to outwardly conform.

She shook her head, thinking of her mother's upbringing. Her maternal grandparents hadn't thought it necessary for a girl to be educated, so their twin daughters didn't know how to read and write at all, not even in Arabic, until Nightwind School had come along. Fortunately they had been witches, so Amina's mother and aunt had been whisked off to school right after getting the acceptance letters and after getting the English language 'dumped' into their heads, immediately began learning how to read and write in the English alphabet. Instead of attending a foreign language class, they had instead learned how to read and write in Arabic under the tutelage of the imam at the school. There had been no further contact with their family after that, for their parents had objected to the schooling and the fact that they could do magic, no matter how benevolent, despite stories of _djinn_ and flying carpets in Arabian mythology (and the former in the Qur'an as well.)

Amina picked up a quill when she was done reading and flipped over to Makena's page, pondering what to write in reply. After a few minutes, she wrote, "Makena, I can see where your parents are coming from, though having to be away from them isn't that great either. Still, they do want what's best for you, and they did say that you could still visit them for a few days at a time." She then signed her name and set down the quill with a sigh. Remus and Marshall had more experience with prejudice, so they would be better at sympathizing with Makena, and Katya was closer to her than Amina was, in addition to being from a group of people that had faced discrimination for centuries.

Makena's reply appeared a few minutes later. "I know, Amina. I wish my entire family could move to Windmere, but I know my parents and brother wouldn't be that comfortable in the wizarding world. Things could be worse for them, I guess."

As she had told her friends what life was like for the native Africans under apartheid as opposed to those classified as 'colored', they knew perfectly well that it could be worse. Amina sighed and wrote, "Things will get better in South Africa someday. If the United States is able to get rid of segregation, and the wizarding world is fighting back against those that look down on Muggleborns, like the situation in Britain, then other places can do similar things." Her mother called for her then, so she hastily added, "Mother wants me for something, so I'll write to you later, Makena." She set down the quill and left her bedroom to see what her mother wanted.

* * *

Rain drummed on the roof of the O'Hagan house. Dylan sighed and glanced out the window, wondering when the rain would let up, before returning to the book he was reading. He wasn't a bookworm, but when it was raining, there really wasn't much else he could do. He had already done some of his summer homework after breakfast, which consisted of going over the first few chapters of his second-year texts and taking notes. What he would most like to do was hang out with his friends, but since it was summer vacation, he couldn't. If his family had lived in Windmere, he would have been able to spend time with Sev, Yun, Sirius, Katya, and Claire. Now all he could do was write to the rest of the Phoenix Club in his notebook, but he couldn't do that all the time. Also, the only one he could write to and get a response right away was Marshall, since the others were in different time zones.

At least the book Dylan was reading, _Dragonquest_ by Muggle author Anne McCaffrey, was interesting. It was the second book in the _Dragonriders of Pern_ series and he hoped that more would follow soon, since he found the concept of a planet with telepathic dragons that bonded with humans in order to fight a dangerous parasite interesting. Science fiction had always fascinated him, and was one of his main interests, besides Quidditch. As his father was Muggleborn, there was a television in the house, and he had watched episodes of an American program called _Star Trek_. Lily and Severus had also told him about a British sci-fi show called _Doctor Who_, though the latter hadn't been that into it.

There was a faint chiming sound and Dylan looked up to see that his journal was glowing silver. He stuck a bookmark at the page he had left off on and went over to his desk. He flipped open the journal to his page and saw that Yuki was writing him. "Hello, Dylan. I'm writing to you since you're the in the closest time zone to me. I'm currently visiting my maternal grandparents in California. I saw some episodes of that show you told me about, _Star Trek_. It was really interesting, and I like how the helmsman, Lt. Sulu, is played by a Japanese-American actor. _Oji-san_ says that the actor is named George Takei and that he was in the internment camps during World War Two like my mother's family were. I think it's great to have an Asian-American actor in a role that doesn't involve them playing a stereotype of some sort. The only movies or shows that my grandparents have shown me that had Asians shown in a good light were ones starring a character called Charlie Chan, and he was played by a white actor. His number one son was played by a Chinese actor, though, and my _Oba-san_ says that his role was one of the few speaking roles for Asian actors.

"Enough about that, though. If the universe and future shown in _Star Trek_ were to turn out to be a reality, how would the wizarding world fit into it? Science has done some things that magic would have trouble copying, like the food synthesizer in the show. I wouldn't be surprised if a new machine got invented that allowed you to order what you wanted and it would create it out of thin air. While magic can conjure lots of things out of thin air, food isn't one of them, according to my father, and he's a Transfiguration expert. What do you think?"

Dylan tapped the end of a pen on his chin, pondering the question. He had never really thought about magic and science mixing, though he had read somewhere that when sufficently advanced enough, magic and science were indistingushable from each other. After a few minutes, he wrote, "I suppose since witches and wizards traveled to the Americas when Europeans discovered them, they could also eventually travel the stars. Since the future in _Star Trek _is more accepting, it could be possible that we reveal ourselves to all Muggles, and use our magic to help out the Federation and alien races we meet, without breaking the Prime Directive, of course. That's a directive preventing the Federation from interfering with other races, especially ones that aren't as advanced, if it didn't get mentioned in the episodes you saw."

Several minutes later, Yuki wrote back. "There's a thought. I wonder how the Klingons would react if a witch or wizard that was in Starfleet did magic in front of him. Though I don't suppose magic would be of much use against a phaser. In the time it took to say a spell, the phaser could probably stun or kill you, depending on the setting. Well, I can see why you like _Star Trek_ so much, and I will definitely be watching more of it while I'm at my grandparents' house. Mr. Spock is fascinating, and I like Lt. Sulu. Capt. Kirk comes across as rather brash and headstrong, and little too interested in the ladies, whether they be human or alien, but he also is a good leader and will listen to Spock and Dr. McCoy before making a decision."

Dylan smiled as he wrote, "I see I converted you and you'll probably be a Trekkie like me."

"Well, science fiction is rather fascinating," Yuki wrote in reply. "But I don't think I'll be as big a fan as you are and start learning the Klingon language like you did. _Oba-san_ just called me for lunch, so I'll write to you later, Dylan."

"Okay." Dylan then set down his pen and shut the journal. He was happy that he'd gotten one of his friends interested in a television show he liked, and that Yuki's mother was Muggleborn and from the United States, which would give Yuki the opportunity to watch it. Her father, on the other hand, was from a wizarding family in Japan, which meant that she had spent time in both countries. She preferred the States, as the culture wasn't as formal as Japan's, and thankfully prejudice against Asian-Americans, especially the Japanese, had pretty much died down in California, which was where her family lived most of the time.

Dylan then went downstairs to the kitchen and got a peach to eat for a snack and proceeded to resume reading _Dragonquest_.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note: Happy Birthday to Draco Malfoy! In honor of his birthday, I am posting this chapter.

Regulus, Chris, Petra, Sirius, Claire, Severus, Katya, and Yun were playing a game of Monopoly in one of the private rooms in the rec center. As they played, Chris remarked, "Mom and Dad let me see the room assignments. Reg, you're with me, and our other two roommates are Ethan Sekibo and Caleb Manning. Ethan's the grandson of the Headmistress and Professor Nakamura and he visits every summer, so you'll meet him before school starts. He's half-African, and his father is part of the Nigerian magical government as their diplomat to Japan. All I know about Caleb is that he's from the state of New York in the United States and he's Muggleborn. And that his parents freaked out over the fact that he's a wizard, since they're very religious and see magic as something bad, even though the Bible verse is really about not letting poisoners live, not 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'."

Both Reverend van Herten and Father Vasquez had mentioned this in their World Culture lesson on Christianity, and Regulus and Petra had heard it in one of their classes in the primary school, so the others nodded at that.

"His parents didn't do anything to him, did they?" asked Severus, as a worrying thought struck him.

"They didn't hurt him, if that's what you mean," replied Chris. "If he had suffered any sort of abuse, do you really think he'd still be with his parents? The teacher that went to give him his acceptance letter would have immediately taken Caleb to live here if he'd been abused. I do know that Reverend van Herten is the one handling the case now, since she can convince Caleb's parents that magic isn't bad, as she's both a witch and a minister. Besides, after what happened with you and your mother, Sev, school policy has been changed. All Muggleborns or those brought up in the Muggle world are tracked down and offered places at Nightwind School, and those with unhappy home lives are brought to Windwere to live."

Severus's mouth fell open in shock. "School policy got changed because of me?"

"You could say that," said Claire. "But there's more to it than that. There was a case about twenty years ago where a new student was found to have been abused. There was some talk about changing school policy then, but since this is no longer the Middle Ages, where all or most Muggles hate or fear magic, the change never occurred. Then you and your mother's case came up, and the staff realized that there would always be those who have parents that hate or fear magic and perhaps take it out on the magic-user. This time the change in policy went through, and with little argument."

Severus blinked, processing this information. Once he had done so, he took his turn, landing on Go and collecting a two hundred Galleons salary. Chris then took his turn, landing on St. James Place, which Katya owned. He paid her the rent, and then said, "Petra, your roommates are Bridget, Maya Chowdhury, and Adriana Chavez. Maya is Indian and Muggleborn, and you know Ana already."

Petra nodded, and for the benefit of Regulus, Severus, and Sirius, explained, "Ana is the niece of Professor Chavez. She's the Transfiguration teacher for our first-year, Reg. Ana's visited Windmere a few times before, and me and Bridget are her pen friends."

"Maybe the eight of us can form a group like the Phoenix Club," Regulus remarked thoughtfully.

"Ana and Ethan would definitely like that," said Petra. "We'll just have to see how Maya and Caleb feel about it."

The game continued, with Sirius winning. As it was past five o'clock by then, the group put away the game and returned to their respective homes for dinner.

* * *

At the Evanses' house, Fiona and Dylan were visiting for two weeks, as Lily's parents had given her permission to invite a couple of her friends over. As Fiona was the only one of her female friends that lived in Great Britain or Ireland, Lily had invited her. Knowing Dylan's interest in science fiction, she had invited him as well, so that he could get a chance to see a few episodes of _Doctor Who_. He had accepted and Nightwind School had provided him a Portkey to England, since his family didn't really have the connections to get an International Portkey from the Canadian Ministry of Magic.

At the moment, Lily, Fiona, and Dylan were in the living room, watching _Doctor Who_, which currently was during the run of the Third Doctor and his main companion, Jo Grant, who was his assistant while he was exiled on Earth. "Does the Doctor have to have companions?" asked Fiona.

"I think he gets bored without any," answered Lily. "And it would get boring to just have him traveling around on adventures. The First Doctor had his granddaughter Susan, and when her history and science teacher happened across the TARDIS in the first episode, they ended up joining him. Since the Third Doctor is currently exiled, you could say that the Brigadier and some of the other people in UNIT are like his companions also."

"Ugh!" exclaimed Dylan a few minutes later. "It's a good thing Daleks aren't real. I wouldn't want to live in a future where they're ruling Earth."

"Even if they were real, you wouldn't be in that future," Fiona pointed out. "The Doctor and Jo traveled to the twenty-second century, and you would be dead by then, even counting the fact that witches and wizards live longer than Muggles. There is no way you would live to be two hundred."

When the episode ended, Dylan said, "Well, that was very interesting. I think I'm going to like _Doctor Who_ as much as I do _Star Trek_."

The three then got into a discussion about science fiction, as Lily had some liking for it, though not as much as Dylan, and Fiona was somewhat familiar about the subject, as her mother was a Muggle and she had some exposure to the Muggle world.

* * *

Kurt was sitting on a chair in the Coursant yard, sketching a picture of Nicole, who was currently painting a picture of her family's garden. He had been invited to visit for a week, since he lived the closest to her out of all the members of the Phoenix Club and she considered him her best friend due to their shared interest in art. While Kurt considered Amina to be his best friend, he did see Nicole as his second-best friend, along with Dylan.

A chuckle caused him to look up from his sketch. "_Wat ist_, I mean, what is so funny, Nicole?"

"I just thought about if I were painting you sketching me instead of the garden," Nicole responded. "Then my painting would contain a depiction of the sketch you were doing, which would have a miniature version of my painting, and it would continue, except my easel isn't large enough to hold a board big enough to show that. And your sketch would contain a depiction of my painting, which would have have a tiny version of your sketch, and so on, except your sketch pad isn't that big."

"That would be pretty funny," said Kurt. He sketched in a few flowers from the garden, then continued slowly, "_Er ge xing qi hou, xue xiao hui kai shi. Na heng hao._" (Two weeks later, school will start. That's very good.)_  
_

Nicole turned to look at him, surprised that he was speaking in Chinese. "_Ni shi lian xi shou zhong wen ma_?" (Are your practicing speaking Chinese?) That was the only reason she could think of for his doing so, since there was no need to keep their conversation private at the moment. At his nod, she continued, "_Hui qi shang xue shi hao._" (Going back to school is good.) She frowned in thought, but lacked the vocabulary to say the rest of what she wanted completely in Chinese, so she switched back to English.

"I miss the rest of our friends, so it'll be great seeing them again. Just writing to them in our notebooks isn't the same. And most of what Dylan writes lately is about science fiction. He goes on about shows called _Star Trek_ and _Doctor Who_ that he's seen on television. While they sound interesting, science fiction is not something I'm really into, and unlike him, both sides of my family are magic and outside of some books, I have very little exposure to the Muggle world. Once we're back at school, Dylan can talk about other things besides Muggle television shows and science fiction."

"I don't know about this _Doctor Who_, since Dylan's only seen a few episodes since he arrived at Lily's house, but what he told us about _Star Trek_ is rather fascinating," said Kurt. "Don't you think it would be great traveling the stars? And living in a future where all races get along? Well, the human race and the alien races that are part of the Federation. There's no prejudice with gender or the color of your skin."

"You mean a future where the black lady is answering the space, what's the thing that Muggles use, ah yes, telephone?" inquired Nicole sarcastically. "I'm sure Makena would love sitting in the bridge of a spaceship and act as a secretary, screening calls and answering messages."

Kurt flushed. "The creator of the show is only able to do so much. There's still prejudice going on in the United States. If he wrote the show as having a black person be high up in the chain of command, much less the captain, a lot of people would throw fits, and it wouldn't be popular. It probably wouldn't be allowed to be shown on television at all once the people in charge saw the first episode. Things will change, though, and maybe in the future there will be a version of _Star Trek_ where black people aren't just the space operator or secretary."

"Good point, Kurt. Now, let's talk about something else. I really don't want to discuss a Muggle television show, especially when all I know about it is what Dylan told us. What do you think our second year at Nightwind School is going to be like?"

"Not much different than our first year, except we'll be learning new stuff. Unless something interesting happens."

The two continued their conversation until they were done with their artwork, at which point they packed up their art supplies and went inside to help Nicole's mother with dinner.

Author's note: 'Er' (pronounced 'are') is the word for two in Mandarin Chinese, but when speaking about two of something, the proper term is 'liang'. Since Kurt isn't fluent in Chinese yet, he naturally made a mistake, and if Claire or Yun had been there, they would have corrected him. For those who might be wondering or have a guess, the episode of _Doctor Who_ that Fiona, Dylan, and Lily were watching is one of the four episodes of the season nine (in the original series) serial "Day of the Daleks." As season nine ended at the end of June that year (1972) and season ten didn't start until the end of December, the episode is obviously a rerun.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: Happy Independence Day to those living in the United States.

On August 28th, Regulus, Chris, and Petra left Windmere and joined the other first-year students at Nightwind School for their Orientation Week. Two days later, on Wednesday, the rest of the school arrived. The school prefects (thirty of them, or fives males and five females each in fifth, sixth, and seventh year) and the Head Girl and Boy introduced themselves to the first-years. After that, the second-years went inside the Assembly Hall, where their new teachers for the year introduced themselves.

The Astronomy teacher was a Russian man in his forties named Professor Mikhail Ivanov. The Charms instructor was Professor Stefan Kaminski, who was Polish and in his late fifties. Professor Gabriella Rivera was the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher and from Argentina and Professor Arata Nakamura (Headmistress Nakamura's husband), was the Herbology teacher. The History of Magic teacher was Professor Fadil Hakim, who wore a short, rounded cap that Amina said was called a _taqiyah_ and had a short gray beard. Professor Juan Vasquez, a cousin of Father Vasquez, was the Potions instructor. Finally, the Transfiguration teacher was Professor Nicodemus Wilmott, an elderly man in his late eighties with a silver beard.

When that was over, the second-years left and the third-years went in to be introduced to their teachers. The following day, the Phoenix Club went to Windmere to pick up their school supplies (other than their textbooks, which they had bought at the end of the previous school year as they had go through the first few chapters for summer homework) and anything else they needed. They had lunch at the inn, and after that returned to school. The group of eight in first year, who had formed a group like Regulus had suggested, met up with the Phoenix Club for ideas for a group name.

Ethan was a tall boy who looked like a perfect balance between his African father and Asian mother. Maya had long black hair done in a plait down her back, small gold hoop earrings, and wore several silver bangle bracelets. Bridget had the same dark auburn hair as her sister Fiona, but had green eyes instead of blue. Caleb had blond hair the color of wheat, blue eyes, and glasses, and was very excited to be part of the wizarding world and learning magic. As for Adriana, she had dark brown hair and eyes and wore a rosary.

"You could name your group after a magical creature like we did," suggested Marshall. "The Dragon Club, for example."

"Maybe," said Maya, who spoke English with a pronounced Indian accent. "But we were thinking something a little different."

"We could be the Fellowship!" exclaimed Caleb. "After the one in _Lord of the Rings_." Seeing some surprised looks, he explained, "I did a lot of reading of books my parents didn't know about and wouldn't have approved. I'm not the one that had a problem with magic."

Chris added, "The only fantasy books his parents allowed him to read was the _Chronicles of Narnia_ series, and that's only because the author was Christian and wrote it as an, what's the word -allegory?- for Christianity."

"Well, I don't think the Fellowship would work," said Lily. "Especially since I don't think Maya would have read the _Lord of the Rings_ trilogy."

"Good point," Caleb said, looking slightly disappointed. "What else could work?"

"Don't look at me," said Ana. "The only name I could think of was the Friendship Group, and that only works if we were still five years old."

"And my suggestion was the Excellent Eight, which sounded stupid, even in my head," added Bridget. "My imagination doesn't extend to coming up with good names for stuff, unlike Anne Shirley in the _Anne of Green Gables _series. I'm more like her friend Diana Barry in that respect."

"Technically it was L. M. Montgomery that had the imagination to come up with good names," said Petra. "Not really her characters. Anyway, what do you think of the name 'Society of Magical Pursuits'?"

"Not bad, except that our group isn't just about doing activities related to magic," said Ethan.

Regulus threw up his hands in defeat and said, "Maybe we should just call ourselves the Dragon Club like Marshall suggested, since we all seem to be terrible at coming with a name that doesn't sound stupid or doesn't fit us."

The rest of his friends agreed, and so the eight were thereby dubbed the 'Dragon Club' by Claire. Chris, who had some artistic talent, quickly sketched a dragon as depicted in Chinese mythology (since dragons were normally benevolent in it, and the real life Chinese Fireball, or Liondragon, looked too much like the Muggle depiction of dragons in European mythology) on the top portion of a piece of parchment. "That is an excellent picture to represent us, Chris," said Maya, with murmurs of agreement from the others. Bridget, who had the best handwriting, wrote "DRAGON CLUB" underneath the sketch, and then the group went off to another room to work out their club manifesto.

On Monday, September 4, classes started. Schedules were handed out at breakfast, and the Phoenix Club saw that theirs were identical and they had the same classes together, except for the foreign language. When Lily wondered out loud about this, Claire answered, "I expect the teachers know that we're a group and decided to put us in the same classes to make things easier. Mom and Dad say they do that sometimes."

Their first class was Transfiguration, with Professor Wilmott, who had the students turn metal and wooden disks into buttons. James, as usual, was the first one to succeed, and Yun turned his wooden disk into a button a few seconds later. After that was Charms, with Professor Kaminski. He demonstrated the Engorgement Charm, which increased the size of an object, on an apple, and then had the class practice it on feathers. Lily was the first one to succeed, as usual, and Professor Kaminski praised her and gave her a Sugar Quill as a reward.

Following was lunch, and as the weather was fine, the Phoenix Club packed up three baskets of sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and bottles of juice and ate outside. The Dragon Club had done the same and were having their lunch a short distance away from them.

After lunch was History of Magic, with Professor Hakim. After taking attendance, he said, "Please turn to chapter one of _European__ History of Magic_." He then proceeded to lecture on the magical history of the Ancient Greeks and neighboring peoples. Apparently the Ancient Greeks had believed that magic users were the demigod children of the minor goddess Hecate, goddess of magic. For homework, the class had to read chapter two, which further went over the magical history of Ancient Greece, and write a summary on the first two chapters.

The following day, the first class was Potions. Professor Vasquez had the class brew a Swelling Solution and assigned an essay on the properties of wolfsbane, also known as aconite and monkshod, and the potions that they were used in for homework. Following was Herbology, held in Greenhouse Three. This intrigued the second-year students, as it held the more dangerous magical plants. Back in first-year, they had only ever been in Greenhouse One, which held the purely mundane plants that provided the fresh produce for the school, and Greenhouse Two, which held herbs, spices, and other less dangerous plants that were used in cooking and various potions.

Professor Nakamura took roll and then began the lesson, which was on Mandrakes. "Today's lesson will be repotting mandrakes, also known as mandragora. It is a powerful restorative and is used to return those that have been transfigured or cursed into their original states. In fact, it is an essential ingredient in a number of antidotes, and the ones cultivated in this greenhouse are given to the Potions instructors at Nightwind School for the antidotes they brew for the Infirmary and the Windmere Apothecary for the antidotes they brew for Windmere Clinic. "

"Now, I expect that you have all noticed the earmuffs on the bench in front of you all?" The entire class nodded and Professor Nakamura continued, "You will be wearing them during today's lesson. That is because the cry of a mature mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it. As the ones we are working with today are still seedlings, their cries won't kill, but will knock you out. Since I certainly don't want anyone to miss the rest of today, and I'm sure none of you do either, please make sure your earmuffs are securely in place as you work. I will get your attention when it's time to pack up. Now, everyone please take an earmuff and make sure they cover your ears completely so that I can demonstrate. When it is safe to remove them, I will produce sparks from my wand."

The class scrambled to the bench and grabbed earmuffs, which they donned. There was a minute where the students made sure that the earmuffs were on securely. Then Professor Nakamura donned his own pair of earmuffs, rolled up his sleeves, and grasped one of the purplish-green, tufty plants in the deep tray on the table in front of him, quite firmly, and pulled hard. Instead of roots, a small, muddy, and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs.

Professor Nakamura took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the mandrake into it, burying him in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. He dusted off his hands, pulled his wand from his pocket and shot out blue sparks from it, and removed his own earmuffs. The class removed theirs, and he said, very calmly as if all he done was repot a tomato seedling in Greenhouse One, "What I have just demonstrated is what you'll be doing today. The next table has all the trays, and the pots are underneath it and this table. Over there is the compost, if you should need more. Four to a tray, please, and if possible, have two boys and two girls in each group."

For the Phoenix Club, this wasn't an issue, as they had sixteen members and an equal number of boys and girls. Yuki, Dylan, Nicole, and Kurt took a tray and proceeded to start repotting. Professor Nakamura had made it look extremely easy, but it wasn't, though Yuki had less trouble than the other three, as Herbology was her best subject. The mandrakes didn't like coming out of the earth, but didn't seem to want to go back in either. They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists, and gnashed their teeth; Dylan spent ten minutes trying to squash a particularly fat one in a pot and in the end Yuki took over. He gave her a look of mixed envy and gratitude when she got the mandrake in the pot in about a minute.

Ten minutes before class was due to end, Professor Nakamura shot out blue sparks from his wand again. Those that were in the middle of repotting a mandrake quickly finished and then everyone removed their earmuffs. "Very good, class. For homework, I would like you all to read the chapter on mandrakes in your Herbology textbooks and write a summary on it. Please put the filled pots in that empty bed over there and brush any dirt or compost on the tables onto the trays. You can then wash up at the sinks, over by that corner, and after that, you are dismissed. Oh, and please remember to hang up your smocks." The last was because all students had to wear smocks during the class to keep their school robes clean.

When everyone was done, they gathered their book bags and headed to the Dining Hall for lunch. After lunch was Defense Against Dark Arts with Professor Rivera. She demonstrated a spell, _Expelliarmus_, which disarmed a person, on a dummy that was holding a stick in its hand, and then had the class practice the spell on said dummy plus four more in the room, who also had sticks in their hands. "It's not a dangerous spell, but if anyone were to get overeager or use a little too much force, your opponent could end up being thrown back by the spell, which is why you're practicing on dummies and not on each other. You wouldn't want to your fellow classmate to hit his or her head or slam into the wall, after all."

Severus disarmed the dummy on his first try, and Remus did so on his second. By the end of class, only five students hadn't succeeded in disarming the dummies at all, Amina and Marshall among them. Professor Rivera had the class read up on the theory for homework, and said that they would continue practicing the spell during the next lesson, at which point everyone in the class should be to disarm the dummies.

When Friday came, the Phoenix Club headed for their first class, which was the foreign language. Claire, Marshall, and Yun went to French, while the rest had Mandarin Chinese. Professor Nightwind-Li greeted the class in Chinese, took roll, and then proceeded to do a review of the vocabulary they had learned the previous school year in order to refresh everyone's memory. In the French class, Professor Lavelle did the same.

After that was the Custom of Magical Beings class, and the lesson focused on werewolves. Professor Romano, the only member of the staff that was a werewolf, taught the class. He explained that werewolves didn't exactly have a culture of their own, as they fit in with the rest of wizarding society, except for the few horrible ones like Fenir Greyback. The main purpose of the lesson was to educate the students about werewolves and eradicate any prejudice the class might have against them.

The afternoon was free for the second-years, as they no longer had to take World Culture, having touched upon everything required for the class. The Phoenix Club took the opportunity to relax, and other than practice Chinese, did nothing related to their schoolwork.


End file.
